The Bible Teaches That the Heavens Are a Solid Dome, Embedded with Stars

The Bible teaches that the earth was “flat and circular sitting on pillars with a rotating solid sky dome overhead which carried the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars and allowed water to leak through ‘windows of heaven’ or sluice gates to form clouds and rain.”

Ancients believed in a flat earth that was covered by a solid dome. Below are listed some examples of ancient cosmologies prevalent 2,000-5,000 years ago.

Sumerians

Ancient Sumerian hymns and myths provide a picture of the universe’s creation. The Sumerians believed that a primeval sea existed before anything else and that the heaven (an) and the earth were formed within it. The boundary between the primeval sea and the earth (a flat disk) was a solid vault, within which was the gas-like atmosphere. The stars, planets, sun, and moon were embedded in this solid vault.

Greeks

The Greek philosopher Anaximenes described the heavens as like a felt cap that turned on its head, with the stars fixed to this surface like nails.

Jews

Note: The Jews, as we know them were not the ancient Israelites, but that would take a book to explain.

Some of the Jews also endorsed solid dome cosmology, For example, Josephus, the Jewish first century Jewish historian, believed that the earth was surrounded by a crystalline firmament:

After this, on the second day, he placed the heaven over the whole world, and separated it from the other parts, and he determined it should stand by itself. He also placed a crystalline [firmament] round it, and put it together in a manner agreeable to the earth, and fitted it for giving moisture and rain, and for affording the advantage of dews.

A portion of the Jewish Talmud indicates that the Sun travelled under the firmament by day and above the firmament by night:

“The learned of Israel say, “The sphere stands firm, and the planets revolve”; the learned of the nations say, “The sphere moves, and the planets stand firm.” The learned of Israel say, “The sun moves by day beneath the firmament, and by night above the firmament”; the learned of the nations say, “The sun moves by day beneath the firmament, and by night beneath the earth.”

Early Christians

Theophilus of Antioch, a second century Christian wrote that heaven was a dome-like covering:

“For the Spirit being one, and holding the place of light,(2) was between the water and the heaven, in order that the darkness might not in any way communicate with the heaven, which was nearer God, before God said, ‘Let there be light.’ The heaven, therefore, being like a dome-shaped covering, comprehended matter which was like a clod.”

Here is what the book of Enoch (a non-biblical ancient text) says about ancient cosmology:

And from thence I went to the ends of the earth and saw there great beasts, and each differed from the other; and (I saw) birds also differing in appearance and beauty and voice, the one differing from the other. And to the east of those beasts I saw the ends of the earth whereon the heaven rests, and the portals of the heaven open. And I saw how the stars of heaven come forth, and I counted the portals out of which they proceed, and wrote down all their outlets, of each individual star by itself, according to their number and their names, their courses and their positions, and their times and their months, as Uriel the holy angel who was with me showed me.

Biblical passages endorse dome cosmology.