46 ASTRONOMYANDTHEBIBLE
God. When Moses speaks of "the heaven and the
heavenofheavens,"heissaying,accordingtothereal
meaningoftheHebrew,'^theloftyandtheloftyofthe
lofties";and bythis, weknowthathe means some-
thingfarbeyondanyheathenishideaofalowdome
aboveus. Deut.lo:14. TheprophetJeremiahbrings
toustherevelationthattheheavensabovecannotbe
measuredbyman(Jer. 31 :37);andthisofitselfdis-
posesofanysuchlimitationstotheskyastheheathen
held. Immediatelyafterwardthesameprophetcould
appealtothismightofGodincreatinganunmeasured
expanseaboveus andaboutus, asa proof ofGod's
omnipotence. Jer. 32 :17. Men's ideas of God's
Word,andthatWorditself,arequiteseparatethings.
Revelationgivesusthetruthofscience,thereal fact,
in theword"expanse";and scienceis leftto search
outthedetailswhichrevelationthussuggests. Here
weseeagaintheconcordbetweentheBibleandscience,
theirtrueharmony.
Lastof all,the Scriptural word for "atmosphere"
isbetter than theone thatscience gives. The lan-
guageofscienceismorethelanguageofmereappear-
ance. Thus books on astronomy speak of "the sun
entering Aries,"bywhichtheydonotmeanthatthe
sun actually enters the constellation of Aries, but
thatitpassesacertainpointinspace,called"thever-
nalequinox." Theyalsospeakoftheconjunction of
heavenlybodies,butdo notmean bythis that these
bodiesactuallyconjoin;theymerelyappear todoso.
And scientific men,nonscientific men,and the Bible
also, putthe appearance for the reality, when they