I looked at the dome over the heads of the living creatures and above them was something that seemed to be a throne made of sapphire.
(Ezekiel 10:1) Good News Translation
The Hebrew word translated as “dome” is raqia. A simple definition is “expanse” so most translations render the meaning as “the expanse of the sky.”
In literal translations the word “firmament” is used to convey the meaning of the word raqia but when we look at the meaning of the Hebrew word, translated in many versions as “the sky,” we find something rather odd:
We all have the same evidence. Our choice of paradigm determines what we think it’s evidence of.
– Matty’s Razor
Firmament: רָקִ֖יעַ – raqia
- I. to stamp with the feet.
- II. to stamp, tread down, 2 Sa. 22. 43.
- III. to stretch, spread out, expand.
- Pi. I. to beat into thin plates.
- II. to cover with metallic plates, Is. 40. 19.
- Pu. part. beaten or spread into plates, Je. 10. 9.
- Hiph. to stretch out, expand, Job 37. 18.
- m. d. 3 a, the expanse. Vulg. firmamentum.
- m. pl. plates of metal. Nu. 17. 3. (for the people is spread abroad)
- pr. name of a town in Judea, 1 Ch. 2. 44.
Davidson Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon page DCXCII
There’s nothing in this meaning about the sky. Raqia refers to an expanse of something solid but thin, like a sheet of paper, or metal that’s been beaten out into a thin layer. Below we see the word raqia used to describe putting a layer of thinly beaten gold over a carving.
He is not like an idol that workers make,
(Isaiah 40:19) Good News Translation
that metalworkers cover with gold
and set in a base of silver.
To be in keeping with the broad narrative of scripture, and account for references to a sea of glass and a pavement of sapphire stone, the expanse has to be a horizontal sheet of something rigid, not a vertical expanse of open space.
Doesn’t God live in the highest heavens
(Job 22:12-14) Good News Translation
and look down on the stars, even though they are high?
And yet you ask, “What does God know?
He is hidden by clouds—how can he judge us?”
You think the thick clouds keep him from seeing,
as he walks on the dome of the sky.
It’s not a coincidence that we’re told that God walks in the circuit (orbit) of heaven. Something like a metal sheet has been beaten out into a thin layer as if it was stamped with the feet.
Bible Versions
The King James Version of the Bible was translated before the notion that the stars are distant suns and galaxies was formally rationalized. This doesn’t mean that the people of that day were ignorant because the fact is there are no distant suns and galaxies, it’s induced narrative. That’s THE NARRATIVE of the Star Trek universe of mainstream science (SciPop). Such as it is, the translators were given the task of accurately conveying the meaning of the original Hebrew, whether or not people would understand what it means.
Christianity has tried so hard to “fit in” with THE NARRATIVE of godless existence that most modern translations don’t contain the words “dome” or “firmament.” Translators impute the meaning that they want, in this case “the sky.” It’s called inductive reasoning, or eisegesis. The meaning that they induce is whatever they think works well with the Star Trek universe. They want to be accepted, so they go with the flow.
A Great Awakening
The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
(2 Thessalonians 2:9-12) NKJV
The problem is that the theology used to make the Bible compatible with SciPop isn’t necessary any more. The scientific method is the strong delusion that people use to believe the lie: THE NARRATIVE of godless existence (SciPop) but there’s no longer any need to try and understand the Bible from within the lie. The Bible describes its own paradigm.
Matty's Paradigm 
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