by Matthew Kruebbe
OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
The authors of the Bible, along with so many other ancient Mediterranean people, believed in a 3-tiered universe:
the heavens/ skies above (often imagined as being in a solid vault, dome, or tent),
the stationary earth/ land below (usually a flat circle/disk or a flat square),
sheol/ hades/ hell/ tartarus beneath.
Although there is no reason to shame our ancestors for lacking the scientific knowledge that we have gained over hundreds of years, it is still important to note that the biblical 3-tiered worldview was primitive and erroneous.
HEAVEN = the SKY
Many ancient Mediterranean people (like Jews, Greeks, Romans, and Christians) believed God, or the Gods, lived up in the sky. In Hebrew (the Old Testament), the word for sky / heaven is shamayim (the heights); in Greek (the New Testament) the word is ouranos. Ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans did not have two different words for sky and heaven; they were the same place. So when English Bibles translate shamayim or ouranos sometimes as sky and other times as heaven, they mislead modern readers into thinking there was/is a difference between those words. In the Bible, the sky-heaven (shamayim or ouranos) is the place
where god lives,
where the angels live,
where the sun, moon, and stars move around,
where rain, thunder, and lightning come from,
where the clouds are, and
where birds fly.
It is all the same place, the same word. Heaven = the sky.
Anyone can take a Bible Concordance or a website like www.biblehub.com, look up all instances of the words "sky" and "heaven" in English, and find the original Hebrew or Greek word translated thus. If one examines all of the uses of those words, one finds just what I have stated above: sky and heaven were not imagined to be different places.
Many modern Christians have made a distinction in their minds, in order to make their doctrines more believable. They claim that God "lives" in a different dimension or "state," not literally up in the sky. They think of the sky as being above the earth, but heaven as being a different "place." They are unaware that the authors of the bible had a more simplistic view.
IS EARTH STATIONARY or DOES IT MOVE?
Bible authors believed that the earth (the land) was stationary, unmoving. They never imagined it was a spherical planet spinning on its axis or revolving around the sun. They even spoke of both the land/ earth and the heavenly sky dome as having "foundations." And they explicitly stated that the earth could not be moved. They also described the earth/ land as God's "footstool."
Psalm 96.10: "The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved." (world – te bel)
Psalm 93.1: "Indeed, the world is established, firm and secure."
Psalm 104.5: "He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved." (earth – eretz – land)
1 Sam 2.8: "For the foundations of the earth are the YHWH's; on them he has set the world."
Job 38.4: "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand."
Proverbs 3.19: "By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place."
Proverbs 8.29: "He marked out the foundations of the earth."
Micah 6.2: "Listen, you mountains ... and you enduring foundations of the earth."
Isaiah 66.1: "This is what Yahweh says: 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool."
Acts 7.49: "‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool."
Matthew 5.34-35: (Jesus talking) "34. But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35. or by the earth, for it is his footstool."
A footstool is stationary. It does not move. These writers never imagined that the earth was a spherical planet both spinning on its own axis and revolving around a star, the sun, which itself moves about in a galaxy, which itself is among billions of moving galaxies.
Here is a brief note on a objection sometimes made by apologists:
Occasionally, a believer will claim that at least Isaiah knew the earth was a planet.
"Isaiah the prophet indicates that the earth is round, as any person of any time period could gather just from looking at a ship coming over the horizon."
The actual verse in question is this one:
Isaiah 40.22: "22. He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth [land], and its people are like grasshoppers [to him, as he looks down from so high]. He stretches out the heavens [skies] like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in."
I will explain why it is a mistake to see this verse as ancient knowledge of the earth as being a planet.
First, a circle is flat. The "circle of the land" is still imagined 2-dimensionally, not 3-dimensionally.
The Hebrew word in question is “chug” – circle or circuit or horizon. The author is not describing Earth as a moving planet, or as an oblique spheroid. A circle is not the same thing as a sphere, a ball.
The Hebrew word chug is used in one other verse,
Proverbs 8.27: "When He established the heavens, I was there, When He inscribed a circle (chug) on the face (paneh) of the deep." (NASB)
Notice that the circle is imagined as being inscribed on a flat surface (paneh) of "deep" cosmic water. This is clearly not a sphere or a planet.
Second, the verse in Isaiah was obviously written by an ancient person who pictured his god sitting on a throne (like a human king) way up in the sky, so high that humans looked like grasshoppers. It is still a primitive worldview imagining an anthropomorphic god looking down on tiny humans far below.
Third, the heavens/ skies are described like a "canopy" or "tent" that is spread out like a covering for Yahweh over his head. In other words, Yahweh has a stationary home between the top of the sky above and the earth below (which is imagined to be like his footstool in Isaiah 66.1, "This is what Yahweh says: 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.'"). The earth/ land is still motionless, and the concept is still primitive.
Fourth, even IF Isaiah 40 had claimed the earth was a sphere (for which there is certainly not sufficient evidence), that would not change the following facts: (A) it is still not depicted as a spheroid both spinning and moving through space around the sun, (B) the concept of sky-heaven is still primitive, and (C) the rest of the Bible, including Isaiah, still has serious problems with its cosmology. The Greek philosopher Thales (500s BCE) believed the earth – either circular/discoid or spheroid – rested on water (see Aristotle De Caelo / On Heaven 294 a28-30). A similar concept may be reflected in Proverbs 8.27, "He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep." In that verse, "the deep" refers to the imagined cosmic waters upon which God created land/earth (as in Genesis 1). But we now know that space is not water, and the earth is not simply resting on "the deep." By the time of Aristotle (300s BCE), some educated Greeks thought the earth was spherical, and others thought it was flat and shaped like a drum (De Caelo 293 b33 – 94 b15). Even if a few literate Hebrews adopted the idea that the earth was a disk or round, they certainly did not imagine it as a spheroid both spinning and moving through space around the sun, and their cosmology was still erroneous. Isaiah 66.1 still depicts the earth as motionless, as in the rest of the Bible.
IS HEAVEN / THE SKY REALLY A SOLID DOME OVER THE STATIONARY EARTH?
Biblical authors imagined that sky/heaven was a firm, giant dome/vault, a "firmament" that slowly rotated above the stationary earth.
Gen 1.7-8: "So Elohim made the firmament/ vault and separated the water under the firmament/vault from the water above it. And it was so. Elohim called the vault "sky/heaven" (Hebrew ‘shamayim’ - the sky, the heights). And there was evening, and there was morning – the second day."
Gen 1.14-18: "14. And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament/ vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15. and let them be lights in the firmament/ vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17. God set them in the firmament/ vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18. to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness."
Job 37.15-18: "15. Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash? 16. Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who has perfect knowledge? 17. You who swelter in your clothes when the land lies hushed under the south wind, 18. can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of cast bronze?"
Ezekiel 1.22: "Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked like a firmament, sparkling like ice, and awesome."
The Hebrew word translated "firmament" (KJV) or "vault" (NIV) in Genesis is "raqia," denoting an extended solid surface or flat expanse, like hammered out bronze. The word is derived from “raqa,” meaning "beaten out" or to spread material by beating/hammering/stamping (like metal). That is why Elihu asks Job, “Can you beat out [raqa] the skies, as he does, hard as a mirror of cast metal?” (Job 37:18). In the 400’s, when St. Jerome created the Latin Bible to be used by the Roman Catholic Church, he translated the Hebrew raqia with the Latin word firmamentum, “support, prop, mainstay; support group” to translate the word. That is the source of the English word "firmament," and as its root suggests, it was imagined to be firm, solid.
Hopefully this is something we can all agree that the biblical authors got wrong! The sky is not a solid dome.
ARE THERE REALLY WINDOWS IN THE SOLID FIRMAMENT OF HEAVEN THAT GOD OPENS TO LET THE RAINS COME DOWN?
Biblical authors wrote that there were "windows" (a.k.a. "floodgates") in this solid dome/ firmament – windows that Yahweh could open to let the rain come down to earth (Gen 7.11; 8.2; 2 Kings 7.2,19; Malachi 3.10; Isaiah 24.18). King James Version and English Standard Version translate these as the “windows of heaven.” The NASB translates them as “floodgates of the sky.” NIV calls them “floodgates of the heavens.”
Gen 7.11-12: "... on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of heaven (floodgates of the sky) were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights."
Gen 8.2: "Now the springs of the deep and the windows of heaven (floodgates of the sky) had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky."
2 Kings 7.2: "The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if Yahweh should open the windows of heaven (floodgates of the heavens), could this happen?” (also 7.19)
Malachi 3.10: "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says Yahweh of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven (floodgates of heaven) and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows."
Isaiah 24.18: "... The windows above (floodgates of the heavens) are opened, the foundations of the earth shake."
DOES THE SUN RUN A COURSE UNDER THE TENT OF THE SKY?
Ancient Hebrews thought the sun moved through the heavens in circuit over the stationary earth. They had a geocentric model of the cosmos. The heaven/sky was imagined to have "ends"/ boundaries at the ends of the land/earth.
Psalm 19.1, 4-6: "1. The heavens [shamayim] tell out the glory of God [El], the vault of heaven [raqiya] reveals his handiwork." ... "4. ... In the heavens [shamayim] God has pitched a tent for the sun. 5. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. 6. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.
Joshua 10.13. "So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself . . . The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day."
The sky is not really a tent for the sun, and the earth did not stop spinning during the 2nd millennium BCE just to wait for some people to finish a battle in the Middle East! These are obviously products of ancient human imagination, not infallible proclamations from a personal God.
CAN STARS FALL FROM THE SKY DOME TO EARTH?
Biblical authors also erroneously believed that stars could actually fall from the sky dome down to the earth (Isaiah 34.4; Daniel 8.10, Matthew 24.29, Mark 13.25, Revelation 6.13; 8.10; 9.1; 12.4). It is sometimes claimed that these "falling stars" were meant to indicate meteors, but when the swipe of a dragon's tail dislodges "one-third of all the stars in the sky" in Revelation 12.4, it is obvious that the author was thinking of stars, having no clue what stars actually were or how far away they were. Biblical writers had no knowledge of the differences between meteors and stars, and these predictions are imaginative anyway.
Isaiah 34.4: "All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree."
Daniel 8.10: "It grew until it reached the host of the heavens, and it threw some of the starry host down to the earth and trampled on them."
Mark 13.25: “the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”
Matthew 24.29: "Immediately after the distress of those days 'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’”
Revelation 6.13-16: "13. and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15. Then ... everyone ... hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16. They called to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!'"
DOES GOD DWELL IN THE SKY ABOVE THE EARTH?
Many Bible passages depict Yahweh/El as dwelling UP in the vaulted sky (shamayim, ouranos), directly above the stationary earth/ land. Often he is imagined to be anthropomorphic, sitting on a throne very high above humanity. Isaiah 40.22 rather simplistically imagines Yahweh to be so high up there that humans look very small like grasshoppers from his perspective! Many Bible passages speak explicitly of Yahweh coming DOWN from the sky to see or do something on the earth/ land. Such passages do not depict an omnipresent, completely non-physical God as some modern religious people imagine. We should also note that ancient Hebrews and Christians prayed with their hands lifted up to the heaven / sky, and sometimes their eyes as well. Why did they do this? They believed their God was up above them in the sky, so upward was the direction in which they held out their hands to ask him for something. Other Mediterranean cultures likewise prayed with hands lifted up. The New Testament also depicts Jesus as rising physically UP into the clouds in the sky above the earth at the end of his earthly mission. 1 Thessalonians 4.16-17 claims that believers, too, will one day join God and Jesus "in the clouds," "in the air" above the earth. All of these features of the Bible are rather primitive, and the vast majority of believers have taken these concepts at face value for most of Christian history.
The following passages view Elohim/Yahweh as dwelling up in the sky above the earth.
Gen 28: "12. He [Jacob] had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of Elohim/God were ascending and descending on it. 13. There above it stood the Lord [Yahweh]."
Job 22.12, 14: "Is not God [Eloah] in the heights of heaven [shamayim]? And see how lofty are the highest stars! . . . he goes about in the vaulted heavens.' (n.b. El/Eloah/Yahweh (god) is in the sky.)
Isaiah 40.22: "It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.”
Isaiah 14.13-14: "You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God [El]; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High [Elyon].'" (Implication: Yahweh is above the clouds.)
Ezekiel's vision of Elohim as an anthropomorphic God sitting enthroned on the vault of heaven, Ezekiel 1.22-26: "22. Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked something like a vault, sparkling like crystal, and awesome. ... 25. Then there came a voice from above the vault over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. 26. Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. 27. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. 28. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking."
Ezekiel 10.1: "I looked, and I saw the likeness of a throne of lapis lazuli above the vault that was over the heads of the cherubim."
Joshua 10.11: "The LORD [Yahweh] hurled large hailstones down on them from the heavens [shamayim]."
2 Kings 1.12: "Then the fire of God [Elohiym] fell from heaven [shamayim] and consumed him and his fifty men." ("fire of Elohim" = lightning)
Psalm 14.2: "The LORD [Yahweh] has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men."
Psalm 123.1 “I lift up my eyes to You, oh You who dwell in the heavens.”
Ecclesiastes 5.2 “Let your heart not be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and you are on the land/earth.”
Matthew 6.9: (Jesus speaking) "Our Father in heaven, ..."
There are also many passages in Hebrew scripture that depict Yahweh as a typical ancient Storm God, riding through the clouds, sending bolts of lightning down upon those of whom he disapproves. I have devoted a separate essay to that concept: "Yahweh, the Primitive Storm God / Sky God."
Many Bible passages speak of Yahweh coming DOWN from the sky to see or do something on the earth/ land. Some Biblical passages present a more primitive view of God than others.[1] The writer of the Tower of Babel story, for example, imagined Yahweh coming down out of the sky to personally inspect Babel – as if he could not see everything from up so high, needed a closer look, was not omniscient, and wanted to take personal action down in Babel that he could not accomplish from his sky home! Likewise, in the Sodom and Gomorrah story, the writer imagines that Yahweh decides to go down from the sky to talk to Abraham and to inspect those cities personally, to see if things are as bad as his messengers say! And Yahweh appears to Abraham looking like a typical man and speaks to him face to face in that story (Gen 18.1, 13, 17, 20, 22, 33). Israelite storytellers also claimed that their ancestor Jacob actually saw Elohim/God "face to face," and even wrestled with him physically on one occasion. The Moses stories, likewise, regularly feature Yahweh coming DOWN from the sky to speak to Moses.
Here are some passages showing Yahweh/El/Elohim coming down from sky-heaven to earth to take action.
Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11.4-7: "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens [shamayim], so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." . . . But the LORD [Yahweh] came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD [Yahweh] said, . . . “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
Genesis 18.1-33: (Yahweh and two other men appear to Abraham, and Yahweh speaks to him face to face about Sarah and Sodom and Gomorrah.) "20. Then the Lord [Yahweh] said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21. that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” (Yahweh does not even know whether to believe the rumors.)
Gen 32.30, "So Jacob called the place Peniel (Face-of-God) saying, 'It is because I saw Elohim/God face to face, and yet my life was spared.'" (At Bethel, previously, Jacob had dreamed of a ladder or stairway reaching up to the sky, a device by which beings could go back and forth, up or down, between heaven and earth. Gen 28.12)
Exodus 3.8: (Yahweh speaking) "So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians."
Exodus 19.11: "be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD [Yahweh] will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. "
Exodus 19.20: "The LORD [Yahweh] came down to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. "
Numbers 11.17: "I will come down and speak with you."
Numbers 11.25: "Then the LORD [Yahweh] came down in the cloud and spoke with him. "
The New Testament is just as faulty in seeing Jesus, God, and the angels as living up in the sky above the earth:
Matthew 6.9: (Jesus speaking the model prayer) "Our Father in heaven [ouranos], ..."
Luke 10.18: He [Jesus] replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven [ouranos].”
Luke 24.50-51: "50. When he [Jesus] had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken UP into heaven."
Acts 1.9-11: "9. After he said this, he was taken UP before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10. They were looking intently UP into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Acts 7.55-56: "55. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked UP to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56. 'Look,' he said, 'I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.'"
Revelation 1.7: "Look he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him[2] ..."
Ancient Jews and Christians often prayed with their hands lifted up to heaven / the sky, and/or their eyes looking up to the sky. Why did they do this? Since they believed their god was in the sky, upward was the direction in which they held out their hands to ask him for something. Other Mediterranean cultures likewise prayed with the hands lifted up for the same reason.
Psalm 123.1: To you lift I up my eyes, O you that dwell in the heavens.
Lamentations 3.41: "Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven."
Isaiah 1.15: (Yahweh speaking) "When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look."
Job 11.13: "If only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands to him in prayer!"
Psalm 63.4; 88.9; 134.2; 143.6.
1 Timothy 2.8: "Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or dissension."
The author of John depicts Jesus himself as looking up to the sky when he prayed. Why? Because that is where his "Father" was supposed to be, according to the author, just as the author of Matthew has Jesus pray to his "father" in heaven (6.9).
John 11.41: " Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank You ..."
John 17.1: "After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed."
1 Thessalonians 4 claims that one day believers will go up into the air, into the clouds, to be with Jesus:
1 Thessalonians 4.16-17: "16. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
Once again, the Bible is explicitly stating that Jesus and "the Father" God live up in the air over the earth, and that faithful believers will one day join them "in the clouds," "in the air."
[1] For example, one may consider the primitive storm god of Psalm 18 – blowing smoke and fire while riding through the clouds on the backs of mythological cherubim and hurling lightning bolts upon his enemies – or the anthropomorphic god of Genesis who comes down from heaven to earth to investigate Babel (Gen 11) and Sodom (Gen 18), to appear as a man and speak face to face with Abraham (Gen 18.1, 33), and to appear as a man to wrestle personally with Jacob (Gen 32.30). Compare that notion of God to the more refined, omnipresent, all-encompassing divinity of Acts 17.28, where Paul is portrayed as agreeing with Greek pantheistic/ panentheistic notions of God: "He is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.'" This story set in Athens, Greece, and Paul is made to quote a Greek poem, Cretica (Κρητικά), attributed to a legendary Greek philosopher named Epimenides (see NIV text note, and Prof. J. Rendel Harris' article series in The Expositor (Oct. 1906, pp. 305–17; Apr. 1907, pp. 332–37; Apr. 1912, pp. 348–353). Judaism was affected by its interaction with Greek philosophy, and Christianity is a mixture of Jewish and Greco-Roman concepts (see, for example, the history of the notion of the divine "logos," or Jesus as the "word" of God).
[2] Re: Revelation 1.7: "Look he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him." The writer apparently thought every eye could see a savior coming down from the sky because the earth was imagined to be flat, and he thought even those who killed Jesus could see him coming because Jesus would be coming soon, within their lifetime. ... An alternative explanation is that the "second coming" was originally code for a renewed Israelite kingdom, and "those who pierced him" originally referred to the Romans. Perhaps when the Jewish revolt against Rome in 66-70 CE failed to establish the new kingdom – symbolized by the "son of man" image in Daniel – the story begin to be peddled or interpreted literally, the original symbolism lost.
IS HELL/TARTARUS REALLY DOWN THERE BELOW THE GROUND?
Biblical authors, like the cultures around them, claimed that hell ('hades' or 'tartaros' in Greek in the NT) was under the ground. The Bible teaches that just as the sky/heaven is above the earth, so is hell below/within the earth. Consider the following from the New Testament:
— Mt 11.23: "You will go DOWN to Hades." (also Lk 10.15)
— Mt 12.40: "For as Jonah was 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the sea creature, so the son of man will be 3 days and 3 nights in the HEART OF THE EARTH.”
— 1Pt 3.18-20: "He was put to death in the body but made alive by the spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in PRISON who disobeyed long ago…"
— Php 2.10: "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and UNDER THE EARTH”
— Eph 4.9. "What does 'he ascended' mean except that he also DESCENDED to the LOWER parts of the EARTH?”
— 2Pt 2.4: "God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but sent them to TARTARUS, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment." (Tartarus is the lowest region of the underworld in Greek mythology. The author of 2 Peter has no reservations about borrowing the term or the concept.)
— Rev 5.3: "no one in heaven or on earth or UNDER THE EARTH”
— Rev 5.13: "every creature in heaven and on earth and UNDER THE EARTH ..."
The more education a person has, the less likely that person is to accept such a concept literally. Even believers have tried to adjust their views. In modern times, it is sometimes more popular for believers to think of hell as not really being beneath the earth. For example, in 1999 Pope John Paul II said in a General Audience, "Rather than a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy." It is not a place, but a "state of being." (https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2HEAVN.HTM#Hell, a Catholic web site).
In the Bible, it was a place, it had directionality ("down"), and it was physically "in the heart of the earth" or "under the earth." A modern scientific understanding of cosmology renders such a view hard to maintain. People respond either by rejecting biblical ideas, or by becoming even more fundamentalist and clinging to the old modes of thought, or by claiming biblical language to be metaphorical – "It does not really mean that."
One of the great problems with the "metaphorical" interpretation is simply that it is applied inconsistently, whenever believer are backed into corners, forced to face beliefs that seem nonsensical. A believer may claim that verse x should be interpreted metaphorically or as a parable, while verse y should be taken at face value. If one starts admitting that concepts are not literally true, one might as well admit that there is not literally a personal afterlife, or a physical resurrection from the dead, and Jesus did not really, physically ascend into the sky in a cloud, and so forth.
ASCENSION: AN ANTIQUATED COSMOLOGICAL WORLD-VIEW:
Except for a few educated Greeks and Romans, most ancient Jews, Christians, Greeks, Romans, and others thought that the earth was stationary, and that the sky was a dome or was in a dome over the earth. So it made sense to common people in the ancient Mediterranean world to imagine that heroes, saviors, or holy individuals like Hercules, Asclepius, Perseus, Aeneas, Romulus, Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Enoch, Moses, Elijah, Jesus, Mary, and Mohammed actually went up into the sky to be with God, or to be/become divine themselves. Ancient Christians simplistically thought Jesus was right up there in the clouds, way up in the sky, hanging out over Jerusalem.
But since Copernicus and Galileo found out in the 1500s-1600s
that the earth is indeed an oblique spheroid, AND
that the earth spins, AND
that the earth revolves around the sun, AND
since later astronomers realized that
the solar system itself is also moving through the Milky Way galaxy, AND
that our galaxy itself is moving too,
along with billions of other galaxies,
none of that ancient geocentric mythology makes sense anymore.
The ancient storytellers who imagined Stephen looking up and seeing God seated on a throne in the sky and Jesus standing at God’s right hand — they were making it up. Heroes and saviors ascending into the sky to join the anthropomorphic god seated on his throne are not realistic.
MERRY-GO-ROUND JESUS?
Luke 24.50-51: "50. When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. 51. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken UP into heaven."
Acts 1.9-11: "9. After he said this, he was taken UP before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10. They were looking intently UP into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Acts 7.55-56: "55. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked UP to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56. 'Look,' he said, 'I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.'"
Is Jesus really hovering in the sky over Jerusalem right now, still standing up, at the right hand of God, who is sitting on a throne?
If so, do Jesus and Yahweh spin with the earth? Is Jesus spinning through space so that he is always above Jerusalem specifically? It seems rather silly when imagined with modern understanding of the movements of the earth, the sun, etc.
The ancient writers of such stories did not know that the earth was moving, so they imagined Jesus simply standing in the sky above them, stationary.
If Jesus is supposed to be right up there in the sky over Jerusalem, is he turning with the earth’s atmosphere?
Furthermore, is Jesus also moving around the sun, not only spinning but also revolving along with the earth? Again, it seems rather silly to imagine such a scenario, in the light of modern science.
Today, more people know that the clouds are not a dwelling place for saviors and gods. Yet the old religions are still very popular, still dominating our culture.
One sees that such ancient stories do not make good sense in light of modern scientific cosmology. They only made sense to ancient minds that thought the sky and the earth were firmly established and that their god was really sitting up in the clouds.
It is fine to take the approach that the resurrection and ascension of Jesus were not "literally," physically true facts. If one wishes to hold on to them, it is better to see them as inspirational stories, parables teaching people to "die" to their selfish ego and live a "resurrected" life in the knowledge of their oneness with the Universe / the All, loving their neighbor as themselves. People who take this approach should confess it in order to help their fundamentalist peers out of the prison of face-value interpretations of the Bible.
Taken at face value, the stories simply are not true.
However, it is obvious that the majority of believers were led to think of these stories simplistically, at face value, through most of Christian history, and even to persecute those who took a more metaphorical approach. And if one is going to take the "metaphorical" escape on this issue, then one should simply admit the same of all the major dogmas of the religion: the personal God concept, creation, Adam and Eve, an afterlife, heaven, hell, the virgin birth, miracles, angels and demons, the resurrection, the ascension – all of it.
CONCLUSION
The Bible, interpreted at face value, is wrong and its cosmology was primitive.
Earth is not stationary, but a spinning and revolving planet.
The sky is not really a solid dome over unmovable Earth.
There are not windows in the sky through which a personal God sends rain, hail, etc.
The sun does not move over the earth under a sky tent.
Stars cannot fall to the earth; they are so many millions of miles away and the earth has no significant gravitational pull to draw them in.
No personal god lives up in the sky - not El, Elohim, Yahweh, Jesus, Zeus, Jupiter, Hercules, or any other.
There is no decent reason to think that simply by believing old stories, you can win the approval of a personal God who will one day lift you up "into the air" to live with him "in the clouds," as 1 Thessalonians 4.16-17 claims.
There is no hell beneath the earth, no place for souls to be tortured by devils or "separation" from a personal God. (The very concept of separation from God is incompatible with the concept of an omnipresent God.)
Stories of Jesus going up physically into the sky are no more true than previous stories that inspired the Christian version: Hercules, Asclepius, Perseus, Aeneas, Romulus, Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Enoch, Moses, Elijah, Ishtar / Inanna, Ra, Horus, etc. Nor did Mary ascend into the sky, as Catholics later claimed. Nor did Muhammed, as Muslims later claimed.