Creation

[orangebox21]

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Seeking a few clarifications:
Who are the 'they' you are referring to?
Where do you find the concept of 'an edge to the sky'?
Not at all what the towers were for.

By "they" I mean early Christians and Jews.

And the word firmament is used during creation serveral times

The firmament is the sky, conceived as a solid dome by my logic that means it has an edge and an other side

Genesis Chapter 1 : 6: And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7: And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8: And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

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Thanks for the clarification.

Let's add verse 9: And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

The word firmament literally refers to a great expanse and, in particular, the vault of the heavens above the earth. It denotes the literal sky that stretches from horizon to horizon. In verse 8 He calls the waters above Heaven and in verse 9 He gathers the waters below unto one place and names them the seas (vs 10). So in modern day language God creates the horizon (or Earth's atmosphere) and thus divides the heavens (outer space) from the earth. (Note: I can't give you an exact altitude for the firmament.)

In light of that, I'm not sure how to answer your initial questions. Suffice it to say, some astronauts have been to the edge of the fimament and beyond.

[MindForgedManacle]

No, the firmament was undestood to be a DOME, nothe sky. It was a belief common to the religions of the area, and, historically, clearly copied by the predecessors of the Israelites.

Don't take kindly to bullshit bro.

[BrokenQuill92]

No, the firmament was undestood to be a DOME, nothe sky. It was a belief common to the religions of the area, and, historically, clearly copied by the predecessors of the Israelites.

Don't take kindly to bullshit bro.

Which I why I wonder how come no thought about the outside of the dome or edges of said dome. Why take all that time to make up the dome myth but not what is outside the dome ?

[MindForgedManacle]

Well, it's not that they necessarily just made it up, they probably just made a simple mistake, lacked the adequate knowledge to retify their belief and/or just didn't see finding out definitively are important. After all, if you go to a relatively flat and clear area and look up and around, it DOES seem like ther's a huge, circular dome around everthing. That powerful intuition could easily override one's curiosity. Further, their inability to find an edge wouldn't necessarily defeat that belief. They could just believe the Earth was reallly big. :p

[Cinjin]

No, the firmament was undestood to be a DOME, nothe sky. It was a belief common to the religions of the area, and, historically, clearly copied by the predecessors of the Israelites.

Don't take kindly to bullshit bro.

They're unconcerned with truth and understanding. They deal in Superstition and Fear. Ergo, misinformation is a quintessential ingredient in keeping people in the dark.
Basically, bullshit is easiest.

[Cyberman]

The irony is that for all practical astronomical purposes, from stargazing to navigation, regarding the sky as an actual dome with all the relevant objects attached to it is a simplistic convenience. It doesn't vindicate the biblical babblings about the nature of the Universe and make them automatically correct, except by way of completely coincidentally - those primitive scribes and whatnot weren't privy to any kind of divine insight or anything.

[Minimalist]

Well curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back

[orangebox21]

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The Hebrew raqia (the “firmament” of the KJV, ASV, RSV, et al.) means an “expanse” (Davidson, 1963, p. DCXCII; Wilson, n.d., p. 166), or “something stretched, spread or beaten out” (Maunder, 1939, p. 315; Speiser, 1964, p. 6). Keil and Delitzsch offered this definition in their monumental commentary on the Pentateuch: “to stretch, to spread out, then beat or tread out...the spreading out of air, which surrounds the earth as an atmosphere” (1980, 1:52). In an article discussing the firmament of Genesis 1:6-8, Gary Workman observed that this word is an “unfortunate translation” because it “not only is inaccurate but also has fostered unjust criticism that the Bible erroneously and naively pictures the sky above the earth as a solid dome” (1991, 11[4]:14). Strictly speaking, of course, “firmament” is not actually a translation of raqia at all, but rather, more accurately, a transliteration (i.e., the substitution of a letter in one language for the equivalent letter in another language) of an “unfortunate translation.” Allow me to explain.

The Septuagint (a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek produced by Jewish scholars in the third centuy B.C. at the behest of the Egyptian pharaoh, Ptolemy Philadelphus, for inclusion in his world-famous library in Alexandria) translated raqia into the Greek as stereoma, which connotes a “solid structure” (Arndt and Gingrich, 1967, p. 774). Apparently, the translators of the Septuagint were influenced by the then-popular Egyptian view of cosmology and astronomy [they were, after all, doing their translating in Egypt for an Egyptian pharaoh] that embraced the notion of the heavens being a stone vault. Unfortunately, those Hebrew scholars therefore chose to render raqia via the Greek word stereoma—in order to suggest a firm, solid structure. The Greek connotation thus influenced Jerome to the extent that, when he produced his Latin Vulgate, he used the word firmamentum (meaning a strong or steadfast support—from which the word “firmament” is transliterated) to reflect this pagan concept (McKechinie, 1978, p. 691). In his Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, Old Testament scholar W.E. Vine stressed:

While this English word is derived from the Latin firmamentum which signifies firmness or strengthening,...the Hebrew word, raqia, has no such meaning, but denoted the “expanse,” that which was stretched out. Certainly the sky was not regarded as a hard vault in which the heavenly orbs were fixed.... There is therefore nothing in the language of the original to suggest that the writers [of the Old Testament—BT] were influenced by the imaginative ideas of heathen nations (1981, p. 67).
Raqia denotes simply an expanse, not a solid structure (see Harris, et al., 1980, 2:2218). Furthermore, the actual substance of the expanse is not inherent in the word. Numbers 16:38 juxtaposes raqia and pahim (plates), suggesting literally an “expanse of plates.” Here, “plates” specifies the actual material involved in the expansion. In Genesis, “heavens,” not solid matter, is given as the nature of the expanse (Genesis 1:8,14,15,17,20). The original context in which raqia is used does not imply any kind of solid dome above the Earth. The Bible equates “firmament” with the “heavens” (Psalm 19:1), even using the compound “firmament of heaven” (Genesis 1:14-15,17). God provided the correct definition on the second day of creation when He “called the firmament Heaven” (Genesis 1:8). It was described further when Isaiah said that the Lord “stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in” (Isaiah 40:22). “Heavens” always is dual in the Hebrew and, in general, refers to the “heights” above the Earth. As such, there are three particular applications of the word in Scripture. There are the atmospheric heavens (Jeremiah 4:25), the sidereal heavens (outer space) where the planetary bodies reside (Isaiah 13:10), and the heaven of God’s own dwelling place (Hebrews 9:24). As the context requires, “firmament” may be used in reference to any one of these. Birds are said to fly in “the open firmament of heaven” (the atmospheric heavens, Genesis 1:20). The Sun, Moon, and stars are set in “the firmament of heaven” (the sidereal heavens, Genesis 1:17). And the psalmist spoke of God’s “sanctuary” as being “in the firmament” (Psalm 150:1). R.K. Harrison, writing on the word “firmament” in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, observed:

The relationship of the firmament to the concept of heaven can be clarified if the firmament is identified with the troposphere, and then by thinking of the celestial heavens either as a topographic dimension beyond the firmament itself, or as the designated abode of God (1982, 2:307).
The context of Genesis 1:6-8,14-22 makes it clear that Moses intended his readers to understand raqia simply as the sky above the Earth.

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[Alex K]

Not at all what the towers were for.

Please elaborate

[Drich]

From the whole creation myth thing they seem to think there was an edge to the sky. If they thought it had edges why didn't think there was an other side to it. Why didn't anyone look for it ?

where do you 'read' that their is an edge to the sky?