Re: "Jerusalems" of John 1:19 and "Heavens"

From: George Athas (gathas@mail.usyd.edu.au)
Date: Thu Mar 05 1998 - 00:23:45 EST


Theodore H. Mann wrote:

> I seem to remember hearing that "heaven," in the OT and NT was
> viewed as being compartmentalized (e.g., Paul's mention of the "third
> heaven). Is it possible that this partly accounts for the use of the
> plural?

Well Ted, the Hebrew word for "Heavens" is the DUAL word ûamayim - that is,
it is not fully plural; it is only two. A very strict translation might be
literally "two heavens". From the Hebrew point of view, at least, the word
doesn't really support the compartmentalisation (what a bytefull!) of Heaven,
unless Heaven has only two parts.

Best regards!
George Athas
 PhD (Cand.), University of Sydney
 Tutor of Hebrew, Moore Theological College
Phone: 0414 839 964 ICQ#: 5866591
Email: gathas@mail.usyd.edu.au

(Visit the Tel Dan Inscription Website at)
(http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~gathas/teldan.htm)



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:39:08 EDT