"In the beginning." The Hebrew for "beginning" is resiyt. The idea is "first in time." Even though God has existed forever in the past and has already created angels, His act of creating the heavens and the earth is called the "first;" the "beginning.
It is the beginning of the physical world, not the spiritual world. The spirit world is well-defined. "The beginning" is when God introduces limits: sizes, distances, time, etc. These did not exist before creation. The spirit world is not encumbered by limits. The physical world is.
God is the focus of creation; not the creatures of creation. Listen to what the Bible tells us about it. "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge." (Ps. 19:1-2) "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? Says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." (Isa. 40:25-26) "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--His eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Rom. 1:20)
God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) "created." The Hebrew is bara. The word means "to bring into being." It carries the idea of producing something new, rare and wonderful; bringing something to pass in a striking and marvelous manner. The word is used 43 times in the Old Testament. The word is used for God's original creation (i.e. Gen. 1:1,21,27; 2:4; 5:1-2; 6:7; Deut. 4:32), what He will do for Israel in the future (i.e. Is. 4:5-6; 65:17-18; Jer. 31:22), and what He does for people during this life (i.e. Ps. 51:10; Eph. 2:15).
Other Hebrew and Greek words used a few times for create are qanah (Gen. 14:19, 22; Deut. 32:6; Ps. 139:13), asahl (Isa. 57:16), yeserl (Hab. 2:18), poieo (Heb. 12:27), and katabole (Matt. 13:35; 25:34; John 17:24; Eph. 1:3; Heb. 4:3; 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20; Rev. 13:8; 17:8). As we studied earlier, katabole is a "throwing down, a laying down of a foundation." (It always speaks of the original creation of the world.)
The Hebrew word for "heavens" is samayim. It is used 416 times in the Old Testament. It is translated "heaven" or "heavens" almost 300 times. Other translations include "sky, air, starry, horizon" and "in mid air." It's meaning includes "places above, places that are higher." It is the atmosphere, the air above us. It is the heaven of heavens, the vast space beyond our atmosphere. It is the horizon, where the earth and sky seem to meet. It is everything above the stars and planets.
A few other Hebrew words translated "heavens" are hem (Ps. 19:4), raqiya (Ps. 150:1; Dan. 12:3), marom (Isa. 24:18,21; 38:14; 40:26), s'mayin (Jer. 10:11; Dan. 6:27), and z'bul (Hab. 3:11).
The Greek word for "heavens" is ouranos. It's used 274 times. 235 of the translations are "heaven" or "heavens." Other translations are "sky, air, heavenly bodies, heavenly things." Ouranos comes from a root that means "to cover, encompass." Ouranos means "the heights above, the upper regions, the vaulted expanse of the sky." It includes the air we breathe, outer space, the limits of the universe, and the highest heaven, the dwelling place of God.
God created it all: all the heavenly places. There is not a place in the skies that He did not create. It is all His creation: by Him and for Him!
Let's begin with out own atmosphere. It is the air we breathe; the mixture of gases surrounding earth, or any other planet for that matter. Many planets have atmospheres of some gaseous mixture.
The air around earth contains nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). Argon and other gases make up about 1% of the air we breathe. This mixture of gases is exactly what humans, animals, trees and plants need to exist. Without air, there could be no life on earth.
Air shields the earth from harmful solar rays and objects from outer space hitting earth. Air traps heat from the sun, giving earth enough heat to support life. Air also makes it possible for sound to travel to our ears.
Air has weight and pressure. The weight of air pressing down on us produces air pressure. An atmosphere is a pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch of surface. That's at sea level. If you climb to an altitude of 10,000 feet, the pressure is 10.2 pounds per square inch (psi). 20,000 feet is 6.8 psi. 30,000 feet is 4.5 psi. 40,000 feet is 2.8 psi. The higher you go into the atmosphere, the less air is pressing down. It becomes more difficult to breathe as we go higher.
The earth's atmosphere is divided into four sections. The first is the troposphere. This is the layer where you and I live. It contains about 75% of all the earth's atmosphere. Everything that breathes lives in the troposphere. The outer limit of this layer is called the tropopause. It lies about six miles over the North and South Poles and about ten miles above the equator. Nothing can live at those altitudes without the help of special oxygen supplies.
Above the troposphere and tropopause is the stratosphere. It continues to about 30 miles above the earth's surface. The outer layer of the stratosphere is the stratopause. The ozone layer is found in the stratopause.
From 30 to 50 miles above the earth is the mesosphere. Meteor trails are found at that height. At the top of the mesosphere is the mesopause. The lowest earth temperatures are found there; as low as -150š F. The mesopause has extremely high winds.
The highest level of earth's atmosphere is the thermosphere. It begins at the mesopause and continues into outer space. Temperatures in the thermosphere get very high because it is exposed to all of the sun's radiation. It can be as hot as 1100š F at 120 miles above earth. Solar storms push the temperatures as high as 3600š F at 250 miles above the earth's surface. The auroral displays occur at 120 miles up. The region of the thermosphere above 120 miles is called the ionosphere. It's called that because the sun's radiation "ionizes" atoms and molecules in the air. The level above 300 miles is called the exosphere. This is where satellites and spacecraft orbiting the earth experience almost no air pressure resistance. Atoms and molecules of the air move so fast in the exosphere that some escape the force of earth's gravity and slip into outer space.
I recommend you read the following Scriptures for further edification: Ps. 8:1-3; 19:1-6; 33:6; 57:5; 89:5-6,11; 96:5-6; 97:6; 102:25-27; 103:11; 104:1-4; 1-8:3-5; 113:4-6; 115:16; 135:6-7; 136:1-9; 148:1-6,13; 150:1-2.
Last Updated: 2/25/1996