Biblical cosmology depicts the basic structure of the world in three tiers.
- The heavens
- The earth
- The waters under the earth
This 3-tier cosmos repeats often in the Bible. Jesus refers to it in a parable, it is mentioned in the Ten Commandments and during the seven days of creation.
The Tabernacle, the Temple, Noah’s Ark, and Mt Sinai replicate Biblical cosmology.
This is BIG stuff!
God’s Word connects all the most important events and people to its view of the cosmos.
The Bible makes these connections because God wants to teach you that there is a lot more in Biblical cosmology than just knowing the basic structure of it.
By understanding Biblical cosmology and its repeating, fractal nature, you’ll know there is a way to return to Paradise lost in the Fall.
Contents
What is Biblical cosmology?
Biblical cosmology refers to understanding the universe and its structure, as the Bible depicts. It covers the ancient Israelite and early Christian beliefs about the nature of the cosmos, including the earth, the heavens, the underworld, and celestial bodies like the sun, moon, and stars.
The basic structure of Biblical cosmology is a 3-tier world where the heavens occupy the highest realm, the earth is in the middle, and the waters are under the earth. The repetition of the basic structure is one of the major themes in the Bible.
In addition to the basic structure, the Bible mentions a couple more elements involved in its cosmology.
- The waters above
- The firmament
- Sheol, the underworld
- The waters below
Next, we will explain what the different elements mean so that you have the necessary pieces ready when we combine them into a coherent picture.
Elements of the Biblical cosmos
Most of the Biblical cosmos elements come from the creation week in Genesis 1-2. So, reading those chapters and our article about the seven days of creation is recommended.
The waters above
The waters above are the heavenly waters that God separated from the waters below by setting a firmament between them in Genesis 1.
The waters above are in the heaven of heavens, the highest heaven, or the third heaven. They are where God’s throne is.
The firmament / the heaven / the sky
The firmament is a space between the waters above and the waters below. God created the firmament during the creation week and set the sun, moon, and stars in it.
God called the firmament “heaven” because it symbolizes the heaven of heavens where God is enthroned.
The firmament was said to have windows where the rain would come on earth.
You may also see the firmament referred to as firmament, sky, or vault.
The sun, moon, and stars
God created the sun, moon, and stars to separate the day from the night on day 4 of the creation week.
The lights are for signs or symbols. They symbolize
- Rulers on earth (Genesis 22:17-18, 37:9).
- Believing Christians (Matthew 5:14, Philippians 2:15).
- Angels (Job 38:7).
- God (Psalm 84:11) and Jesus Christ (Malachi 4:2, Revelation 1:16) as the sun.
The lights mark harvest and festival times, and time in general: “for seasons, and for days and years.”
The lights give light to the earth.
The lights rule over the day and night and act as symbols for the world’s political (“rule over”) and priestly (“separate the light from the darkness,” Philippians 2:15) rulers.
The firmament (the world’s rules, Christians) must unite the waters above and the waters below by mediating between them.
The earth / the dry land
Depending on the context, the earth is
- the whole universe, excluding God’s throne room, the heaven of heavens (Genesis 1:1).
- Or the land area of the world.
The dry land appeared when the waters below gathered together on day 3 of the creation week.
The dry land is between heaven and the seas and is supported by the earth’s pillars from underneath.
Sheol / the underworld
In the ancient Hebrew cosmology, Sheol was where the dead people would go.
Sheol was situated under the earth and sometimes referred to as the underworld, grave, or pit. Note that even though Sheol was referred to as a grave, it is not the same place where a dead person’s body is placed.
The waters below
The waters below is a place of chaos, disorder, and death. It is the opposite of the waters above in the heaven of heavens where God’s will is done.
The waters below are also called the deep or the abyss.
The dry land appeared when the waters below gathered together on day 3 of the creation week. God called “the gathering of the waters below” the seas.
The seas
The seas are roughly the same as the waters below. God called the gathering of the waters below the seas.
The seas symbolize the Gentile nations that were without God’s presence, unlike Israel.
The seas are chaotic, unpredictable, and dangerous.
What does the Biblical cosmos look like?
The elements conclude the Biblical cosmology, which resembles the image below.
However, when the Bible refers to the cosmos, it doesn’t discuss it in much detail but in three tiers, changing the elements depending on the context.
The pattern of Biblical cosmology
God created the creation in two separate realms, the heavens and the earth. The goal is to unite them so that “God’s will would happen on earth as it is in heaven.”
The seven days of creation communicate this separation and union in many ways, highlighting man’s role as a mediator between the two realms.
When God creates the firmament on the second day of the creation week, it completes a symbolic 3-tier Biblical cosmos: waters below, firmament, and waters above (see image above).
When the waters below gather together, and the dry land appears on the third day, it reveals another symbolic 3-tier Biblical cosmos: heaven, earth, and seas.
You can find this same structure in the Ten Commandments with a key verse below.
Exodus 20:4
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Genesis 2 expands the Biblical cosmology pattern found in Genesis 1. In Genesis 2, the Bible describes how God plants a garden in Eden and puts Adam into it to work it and keep it (“keep it” is to guard the Garden).
Now, the earlier 3-tier structures from the creation week become clearer. God put man in the Garden and gave Him the purpose for his life.
Through the creation week’s sequence of creating and forming on days 1-3 and then filling on days 4-6, God communicates to Adam that the land of Eden and the Garden are to him as the creation was for God. The earth’s need for completion through Adam’s dominion underscores the profound implications for human life and its purpose. It is a call to obey God’s will and spread His divine purpose worldwide.
Eden as Biblical cosmos
Genesis 2:8
Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
According to the above verse, the Garden of Eden was located on the east side of the Land of Eden. From this, we can construct a 3-tier pattern of the world.
The three zones are
- Garden
- Land
- World
The Garden was where God would dwell and meet with man. Since God cast Adam out from the Garden, we see Him repeatedly reconstructing the 3-zone world pattern to create a place where man could meet God.
In a way, then, we can see the purpose of the creation, and therefore the creation week, to be that of “building a sanctuary.” A sanctuary would act as a place where God would dwell on earth. It would also offer a place where man could meet God (it was called the tent of meeting in the Old Testament) if they followed God’s instructions. Therefore, the sanctuary became not only a place where God dwelled, but it was also the way to God.
The way to God is to follow His instructions, His will. That is precisely what Noah did when the flood waters were about to hit the world (Genesis 6:22).
Noah’s ark as cosmos in the Bible
Noah was the only person who found favor in God’s eyes before the Flood. God gave Noah detailed instructions on how to build the ark and specifically mentioned building it on three levels with a window on top and a door on its side.
Genesis 6:16
You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.
Now, in this passage, we can see three different cosmos emerging. One is evident because it is the ark with lower, second, and third levels.
The other is the waters under the ark, the ark (with a window) in the middle, and the heaven above.
Suppose you take the water under the Ark as the seas and the Ark as the dry land, together forming the earth as on the 2. creation day before the dry land had appeared. In that case, the window of the Ark represents the firmament between our world (the dry land and the seas) and the heaven of heavens, which in the next image is represented by heaven.
Note that when God finished renewing the world, Noah removed the Ark’s window as an eschatological image of a veil removal. Renewing the world is the reason why God flooded the world.
Mt Sinai as cosmos in the Bible
Mt Sinai is one of the most significant mountains in the Bible. Moses encountered the Angel of the LORD in the burning bush at Mt Sinai. He later received the Law, including the Ten Commandments, from God at the mountain’s summit.
When God made a covenant with Israel at Mt Sinai, He asked Moses, Aaron, Aaron’s two sons, and the seventy elders of Israel to come and worship Him on the mountain (Exodus 24).
Only Moses could come near God, while others should worship from a distance. The rest of the Israelites couldn’t come up the mountain.
From the first two verses of Exodus 24, we see the meeting at Mt Sinai resembling a miniature cosmos where Moses meets God at the summit, the elders worship in the middle, and the rest of the people stay at the mountain’s base.
Like in the creation week and Noah’s Ark, we see two representations of the cosmos emerging at Mt Sinai.
The one above shows a Biblical cosmos that emerges on the earth: the summit, elders in the middle, and the rest at the base.
Let’s see how Exodus 24 shows another miniature cosmos in this scene. Verse 10 tells us that Moses and the elders saw God in the mountain. The passage depicts God in the heavens, Israelites on the ground, and Moses and the elders in the middle as mediators between them.
When we add to the first image the altar Moses built at the mountain’s base (verse 4), Mt Sinai starts to resemble even more the Tabernacle that we will study next.
When we add the twelve pillars next to the altar (verse 4), the image starts to resemble the Temple’s bronze sea supported by twelve oxen resembling the twelve tribes of Israel.
The Tabernacle as cosmos
The story of the Tabernacle starts where we left off in the previous section in Exodus 24.
After Moses and the elders met God and ate and drank at Mt Sinai, God told Moses to come to the summit to collect the Law and the Ten Commandments He had written.
The stone tablets of the Law Moses got at the summit were later placed in the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, adding another similarity between the summit of Mt Sinai and the Holy of Holies in Biblical cosmology.
The Law contained the heavenly blueprints for the Tabernacle. God gave the blueprints in seven “The LORD said to Moses” speeches that we find in Exodus 25-31. Each speech corresponds to each of the seven days of the creation in their order. God wanted Israel to return to the Garden of Eden within the Tabernacle setting.
During the seven days of creation, God spoke in ten “God said” statements that created our cosmos. In the case of the Tabernacle, the seven “The LORD said to Moses” speeches gave the heavenly blueprints to Moses, who built the Tabernacle representing the cosmos.
The Tabernacle had two parts. The Holy of Holies was where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and where only the High Priest could access once per year on the Day of the Atonement. The Holy of Holies was separated from the Holy Place with a thick veil with an image of cherubim.
The Tabernacle’s courtyard had an altar, a water basin, and a fence around it. Thus showing us a miniature 3-tier Biblical cosmos.
Solomon’s Temple resembles Biblical cosmology
The Temple resembled much of the Tabernacle, although it was much more grandiose and immovable, unlike the movable Tabernacle.
God gave the blueprints of the Temple to David (1 Chronicles 28:11-19) but didn’t let David build the Temple. The works were carried out by David’s son, Solomon.
The second Temple, destroyed in 70 AD, had the same 3-tier layout as Solomon’s Temple.
Jesus mentions a 3-tier Biblical cosmos in His parable
Jesus mentions the 3-tier Biblical cosmology in His parable of the wicked vineyard workers. Below, you’ll find the key verse of the parable for our purpose.
Matthew 21:33
Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country.
The area outside the vineyard’s hegde is the waters/wilderness.
The vineyard is the earth.
The vinepress and the tower represent things in heaven. The winepress is a sanctuary, and the tower can be seen as priests guarding the sanctuary. Adam was “to work the Garden and keep it.” Keep it means to guard it. This is precisely what the winepress and the tower are for the winepress to work in the sanctuary and the tower to guard it.
Jesus tabernacled among us
John 1:14 (YLT)
And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us.
The first chapter of John’s Gospel refers to the creation in multiple ways. John 1:14 pitches us the idea that Jesus is like the Tabernacle, while in John 2:19-21, Jesus refers to His body as the Temple. Also, Paul talks in Colossians 2:9 about how, in Jesus, the fullness of deity dwelled in bodily form.
Once the Gospel of John lays out the idea of Jesus being like the Tabernacle, the book’s structure then follows the furniture of the Tabernacle.
- Altar: Lamb of God in John 1.
- Laver: Purification and the living water in John 2-4.
- Showbread: 12 baskets of bread leftovers and “I am the Bread of life” in John 6.
- Lampstand: “I am the light of the world” in John 8, and giving sight to a blind man in 9.
- Mary anoints Jesus in John 12:3 just like Moses anointed the Tabernacle in Ex 40.
- Altar of incense: Prayer is likened to incense in Psalm 141:2. Jesus’ High Priestly prayer in John 17.
- Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant: The tomb is the Holy of Holies, and the place where Jesus’ body was laid is the Ark of the Covenant with two cherubim on top. John 20.
The Book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our High Priest, and through His sacrifice, we can now draw near to the Father, completing the idea that Jesus is not only the place but also the way in which we can dwell with God.
When you, as a Christian, are in Christ, you become part of the Temple, where Jesus is the chief cornerstone. You are a dwelling place for God by His Spirit. For what else would God create a 3-tiered (spirit, soul, and body) human than for this very reason?
Ephesians 2:19-22
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
The summary of Biblical cosmology
The concept of Biblical cosmology presents a structured understanding of the universe as depicted in the Bible.
Biblical cosmology is often portrayed as a three-tiered framework consisting of the heavens, the earth, and the waters. This cosmology repeats throughout biblical narratives, including the creation account, Noah’s Flood, Moses’ Exodus, Jesus’ parables, and other significant events like the construction of the Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple.
As Psalm 19 also tells us, the cosmos reflects the heavenly order and humanity’s relationship with God. Biblical cosmology shapes how we understand a sanctuary and the journey toward God.
Ultimately, Biblical cosmology portrays a profound interconnectedness between God, humanity, and creation, with Jesus’ death and resurrection as the ultimate means of reconciliation between heaven and the earth.