The Waters Above from the Waters Below

I was asked recently, "Were the waters that went above like a canopy over the earth until the days of the Flood or were the waters above simply our "sky" as we now know it?

This was an interesting question for me. While attending a Christian school, in middle school physical science, my teacher taught that this canopy surrounded the earth and helped create an environment that helped plants and animals thrive, but God used this water to bring about the Flood. Until this question was directly proposed to me, I had never questioned my 8th grade science teacher.

As I look into this matter bear in mind that I am not the expert, simply an individual looking at God's Word and speculating. The Bible does not specifically tell us. We, also must remember that each of us will look at this text and still be left wondering was it some special canopy, or is it simply referring to the clouds and atmosphere of our planet called earth?

The text seems to indicate something within the everyday experience of the natural world, in a general way, a place where the birds can fly and where God has placed the lights of the heaven. So the likely reference of the "waters above" is to clouds. This is the view that many of the early church fathers held. John Calvin writes,

"We see that the clouds suspended in the air, which threaten to fall upon our heads, yet leave us space to breathe. . . . We know, indeed, that the rain is naturally produced; but the deluge sufficiently shows us how speedily we might be overwhelmed by the bursting of the clouds, unless the cataracts of heaven were closed by the hand of God."

I am not sure the Bible nor science is as clear as my 8th grade teacher led us to believe about the canopy that may or may not have existed. "Answers in Genesis", a web-site devoted to creation doctrine, has this article dealing with the idea of a "dome" or "canopy" over the earth. Check it out at your convenience.

Can't wait to hear your theories.