New on TikTok: The “firmament” is an older English term (from the Latin firmamentum in the Vulgate Bible, meaning something firm or solid) used to translate the Hebrew word רָקִיעַ (raqia or rāqîaʿ) in Genesis 1:6–8. A modern paraphrase would be: “Let there be an expanse (or stretched-out space) in the midst of the waters, to separate the waters from the waters.” God then creates this expanse, dividing the waters below (on Earth) from the waters above, and calls it “Heaven” (or “sky”). In simpler terms: • It’s the vast sky or atmospheric expanse we see overhead. • It acts as a divider between earthly waters (seas, rivers) and the “waters above” (often understood as the source of rain or clouds). • The sun, moon, stars, and birds are later placed “in” or “across” this expanse (Genesis 1:14–20). This reflects phenomenological language — describing the world as it appears to human observers: a blue “vault” overhead holding back rain, with lights moving across it. Explaining Flat Earth Theory in Relation to the Firmament Flat Earth theory is a modern fringe belief (revived in the 19th–21st centuries) that the Earth is a flat disk, often enclosed by a physical dome. Proponents frequently cite the biblical “firmament” as evidence for this dome: • They interpret raqia literally as a solid, hammered-out barrier (like beaten metal), based on the word’s root meaning “to stamp or spread out thinly.” • This dome supposedly holds “waters above” (Genesis 1:7), with the sun, moon, and stars embedded inside or on it, and Antarctica forming an ice wall around the edge. • Verses like Isaiah 40:22 (God “stretches out the heavens like a curtain”) or Job 37:18 (sky “hard as a molten mirror”) are taken as supporting a rigid structure over a flat Earth.