Joze Krasovec, D er Merismus im Biblisch-Hebraischen undNordwestsemitischen (Rome: Biblical Institute
Press, 1977); Antithetic Structure in Biblical Hebrew Poetry (Leiden: Brill, 1984). Krasovec, Antithetic Structure, 5.
“I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.” (Lev 26:19)
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today.” (Deut 4:26) “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice.” (1 Chron 16:31)
Note that sometimes the phrase is used with a simple reference to creation (e.g., Gen 1:1; 14:22) and at other times there is a more general sense of “all things” or “all places” (e.g., Deut 4:26; 1 Chron 16:31).
While the OT does at times use ^3 (“the whole, all”),*^ it appears too infrequently to qualify as a terminus technicus in any sense. Most commonly, the cosmos is spoken of with the trope, heaven and earth. The LXX typically translates the Hebrew phrase with the equivalent, ocpavoç Kal yh- Classic Greek and Greek cosmology instead often used Koopoç (“world, universe”) to speak of the entire realm of matter. In the LXX this word is not typically used with the sense of “world” until the later writings, particularly those
composed in Greek such as Wisdom of Solomon and 2 and 4 Maccabees.^** Another Greek word, KTLaiç (“creation, created thing”), is used even less frequently. Again, when it does appear, it is usually in the apocryphal books.^*
One rare example where heaven, earth and “the world” (Heb., Greek, oLKoupévri) are put together is Ps 89:11 [LXX 88:12]: “The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.” The parallel of heaven and earth combined with “the world” shows the typical merismatic function of this word pair.
2. Antithetic Usage
While the expression heaven and earth most often refers in the OT to the cosmos in a merismatic sense, very frequently the word pair is used with an antithetical or contrastive tone. That is, the two elements of heaven and earth are not being used together to speak of the cosmos, but some distinction is being made between the two. For example:
Isa 44:24; 1 Chron 29:12; Ps 145:9. Houtinan, D er Himmel im AT, 76.
Edward Adams, Constructing the World: A Study in Paul’s Cosmological Language (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000), 75. Koopoç does occur in earlier portions o f the LXX but with its other semantic sense o f “ornament” or “adornment.” This is the term sometimes used to refer to the “host o f heaven” (Dt4:19; 17:3; cf. Gen 2:1),
Adams, Constructing the World, 77-78.
(46x in MT) is generally used as a poetic synonym for hence the LXX's oiKouiiévri rather than
“The heavens are the LORD'S heavens, but the earth he has given to the sons of men.” (Ps 115:16)
“He looked down from his holy height, from heaven the LORD looked at the earth.” (Ps 102:19)
“Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven, and you upon earth.” (Eccl 5:2)
“Thus says the LORD: Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.” (Isa 66:1)
The exact nature of the distinction in these types of uses of heaven and earth varies by context. Indeed, it is difficult to construct a rubric which covers well the various nuanced uses of this pair. There are in fact some passages which seem to fall in between the two general categories of merismatic and antithetic,but overall, the examples given above show that at times the typical merismatic usage of heaven and earth is not at work. In these instances, heaven is functioning metonymically for God and his realm while earth corresponds to all of humanity. Thus, this same word pair is being used to exploit a difference between God and humanity. The antithetic usage of heaven and earth still has the fundamental notion of God as the creator of all things (both heaven and earth), but functions as a way of communicating the elementary distinction between God and his creatures.
3. Discerning Merismatic and Antithetic Uses
The potential for heaven and earth to be used in such different ways as merismatic and antithetic stems from the flexibility in the semantic range of heaven. We have observed previously that the semantic domain of heaven in the OT contains two main poles: (1) the sky, atmosphere, and space of the created order; and (2) the dwelling place or presence of God. These two distinct poles of meaning prove to be the key to distinguishing between the two main uses of the heaven and earth pair. In a very real sense the two different uses of heaven and earth (merismatic and antithetic) can be understood as the outcome of earth being combined at times with one sense of □*’nuJ/oi)pav6ç, and other times with the other sense. That is, when heaven is functioning with reference to the above (skies, etc.) of the created order, a combination with earth naturally results in a reference to the entire created order, the cosmos depicted in a dualistic way (merismus). Conversely, when heaven is used
For example, in Ps 76:8 (“From the heavens thou didst utter judgment; the earth feared and was still”), it is not clear whether this heaven refers to God’s dwelling place (thus, contrastive) or some audible or visible sign/destruction coming from the sky (thus merismatic). Maybe the ambiguity is intentional and both are meant.
with reference to God (e.g., as specifying his dwelling place), the occurrence of earth understandably serves as a point of contrast (antithetic).
Heaven and Earth as the Fundamental Weltbild and Weltanschauung of the OT
In addition to the standard heaven and earth pairings throughout the OT, we also find occasional expansions of the expression to include other terms as well, such as the sea, the waters, the deeps, and the dry land.
For example:
“For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them” (Ex 20:11; cf. Ps 146:6, Jer 51:48)
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” (Gen 2:1) “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” (Deuteronomy 5:8)
“Whatever the LORD pleases he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.” (Psalm 135:6)
“Thou art the LORD, thou alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them.” (Nehemiah 9:6)
“Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.” (Haggai 2:6)
These various descriptions have led many to assume that the ancient Hebrew people conceived the structure of the world as consisting of more than the heaven and earth
scheme. The majority of scholars, relying heavily on ancient near eastern parallels, understand OT cosmology as tripartite.Luis Stadelmann’s volume, The Hebrew
Conception of the World, typifies this approach. He observes that “heaven and earth” is a common phrase that the Hebrew Bible uses to describe the world, but that there are also “more comprehensive” descriptions that use multiple terms such as “heaven and earth and the seas or deeps.” He states:
The three-leveled structure of the world, attested in several passages throughout the Bible, accounts for a better understanding of the expression “heaven and earth,” clarifying this less explicit concept of the universe by adding a new dimension.
Much o f the argument in this section can be found in a slightly different form in my article, “Dualism in
Old Testament Cosmology: Weltbild and Weltanschauung^ SJO T18/2 (2004): 260-277.
^ Representative examples from reference works are the entries on Cosmology in ABD 1:1167-68 and the
Dictionary o f the OT: Pentateuch (eds. T. Desmond Alexander and David W. Baker; Downers Grove, 111.:
IVP, 2003).
Specifically, the “new dimension” is contained in terms such as
Dinn
(the deeps), (pit, cistern), and biKUl (Sheol), which refer to a third tier, the lower level of the world. Stadelmann assumes a triple-decker cosmology because of the Bible’s discussion of a place of postmortem existence, often described as being accessed by going down.^^ He concludes by stating that the Hebrews conceived of the world under God as “a structure composed of three layers: the heavens above, the earth and sea in the middle, and the underworld beneath.”^^In a recent book, J. Edward Wright follows this same line of thought. He surveys the ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Israelite cosmogonic and cosmological traditions and concludes that “the ancient Israelites, like their Near Eastern neighbors, imagined the cosmos as a tripartite structure: heaven, earth, netherworld.”^^ Wright interprets the
Babylonian myth of creation and flood as depicting a three-fold cosmos. Following this, he lists a handful of biblical texts which are understood as indications that the ancient
Israelites held to the same tripartite cosmological view as their neighbors.
Few scholars have disagreed with this understanding, but one notable exception is Comelis Houtman. Houtman concludes his volume with a chapter entitled, “Israels
Weltbild und Weltanschauung.”^** His thesis is provocative. Quite simply, Houtman argues that the Israelites did not hold to a single, unifying view of the cosmos - tripartite or otherwise - but indeed, they simultaneously retained several images of the heavenly realm which contrast and even conflict with one another. Our modem attempts at nailing down the specifics of the biblical cosmology, especially with various pictorial depictions, have foisted upon the biblical texts a mistaken grid; we are trying to recreate the ancients’ one
logically consistent image of the cosmos when no such thing existed, at least not by modem “scientific” standards. Israel had no Weltbild. However, we do find in the Bible a
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