NOGO

That first sentence is something to behold.
Why would someone who is talking about meteorites talk about stars in order to have a basis of numerical comparison.

While looking at the night sky it is easy to imagine what a third of the stars would be. One would expect to see one third ot the night sky totally dark. It become an area rather than a number.

No one has any sense of how many meteor there are. In fact I would guess that there are far more rocks floating about in space than there are stars. And there are a lot of stars.

So the statement is legitimate if it talks about stars. One third of the stars is at least approximately verifiable. The statement is totally irrational if it is talking about meteorites because there is no way of knowing what their numners are.

Fortunately the authors talks about stars and uses the word stars and not meteorites. It is entirely possible that people believed that meteorites were in fact stars falling on earth. Thus the term shooting star. But this is exactly what I claim. Ancient people believed that stars were small lights appended to the dome of heaven. This is exactly what the book of enoch describes.

Revelation may be symbolic but the symbolism used is based on the cosmology that the ancient Hebrews held as truth. The stars falling as figs in the wind, one third of the stars falling to earth, the heavens scrolling away etc. all agree with the concepts described in the book of enoch as factual cosmology.


and the context goes like this.
1) The heavens were spread like a tent (Isaiah 40:22)
2) they will scroll away (Rev 6:14)
3) and it looks like a awesome crystal spread over the cherubim heads (Ezekiel 1)
4) and God spread it as one hammers out a hard molten mirror (Job 37:18)

That is context, and the context says that it was a surface.

It may be referring to a huge number of meteorites falling that appear to be one third of the the stars. Or it may be entirely symbolic as most of Revelation is. It may just be symbolic of cosmic changes occuring in the last days.


You misunderstood me.
Read Genesis 1 and then read Ezekiel 1
The expanse separates the waters above from the water below.
The expanse is above the clouds as Ezekiel clearly states.
Above the expanse is the throne of God.
As Isaiah 40:22 says "He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth ... and he spread the heavens like a tent.
Genesis says that the moon, sun and stars are within the expanse. That means inside the tent and yes above the clouds.

NOGO

I know that You create these absurd explanations as you go along.

The word for firmament or expanse is the same in all the following verses

Gen 1:6 , Gen 1:7 , Gen 1:8 , Gen 1:14 , Gen 1:15 , Gen 1:17, Gen 1:20, Psa 19:1 , Psa 150:, Eze 1:22, Eze 1:23, Eze 1:25, Eze 1:26, Eze 10:1

it is "raqiya" here is the definition and variations

raqiya` raw-kee'-ah
from; properly, an expanse, i.e. the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky:--firmament.

raqa` raw-kah'
a primitive root; to pound the earth (as a sign of passion); by analogy to expand (by hammering); by implication, to overlay (with thin sheets of metal):--beat, make broad, spread abroad (forth, over, out, into plates), stamp, stretch.

riqqua` rik-koo'-ah
from beaten out, i.e. a (metallic) plate:--broad.


In Gen1:8 God calls the "raqiya" heaven.
In Ezekiel 1 it is described as a surface.

Now look at Job

Job 37:18
"Can you, with Him, spread out [raqa] the skies,
Strong as a molten mirror?

The word translated as "spread" is in fact "raqa" and means "to beat" as in beat metal surfaces as a blacksmith does. That is the reaon it is used here in connection with a mirror.

Job 37:18 compares the skies to a mirror
Back then a mirror was made of bronze so it was beat (raqa) into shape just like the firmament (raqiya) is beat (raqa) into a thin metal sheet that looks like a tent.

That is what Job is saying. God beat out the firmament much like blacksmiths beat a piece of heated brozen into a shape like a bowl for example.

Here is another example of "raqa", to beat

Exd 39:3
And they did beat (raqa) the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work.