Heaven

VIEW:39 DATA:01-04-2020

HEAVEN.—In the cosmic theory of the ancient world, and of the Hebrews in particular, the earth was flat, lying between a great pit into which the shades of the dead departed, and the heavens above in which God and the angels dwelt, and to which it came to be thought the righteous went, after having been raised from the dead to live for ever. It was natural to think of the heavens as concave above the earth, and resting on some foundation, possibly of pillars, set at the extreme horizon (2Sa_22:9, Pro_8:27-29).
The Hebrews, like other ancient peoples, believed in a plurality of heavens (Deu_10:14), and the literature of Judaism speaks of seven. In the highest, or Aravoth, was the throne of God. Although the descriptions of these heavens varied, it would seem that it was not unusual to regard the third heaven as Paradise. It was to this that St. Paul said he bad been caught up (2Co_12:2).
This series of superimposed heavens was regarded as filled by different sorts of superhuman beings. The second heaven in later Jewish thought was regarded as the abode of evil spirits and angels awaiting punishment. The NT, however, does not commit itself to these precise speculations, although in Eph_6:12 it speaks of spiritual hosts of wickedness who dwell in heavenly places (cf. Eph_2:2). This conception of heaven as being above a flat earth underlies many religious expressions which are still current. There have been various attempts to locate heaven, as, for example, in Sirius as the central sun of our system. Similarly, there have been innumerable speculations endeavouring to set forth in sensuous form the sort of life which is to be lived in heaven. All such speculations, however, lie outside of the region of positive knowledge, and rest ultimately on the cosmogony of pre-scientific times. They may be of value in cultivating religious emotion, but they belong to the region of speculation. The Biblical descriptions of heaven are not scientific, but symbolical. Practically all these are to be found in the Johannine Apocalypse. It was undoubtedly conceived of eschatologically by the NT writers, but they maintained a great reserve in all their descriptions of the life of the redeemed. It is, however, possible to state definitely that, while they conceived of the heavenly condition as involving social relations, they did not regard it as one in which the physical organism survived. The sensuous descriptions of heaven to be found in the Jewish apocalypses and in Mohammedanism are altogether excluded by the sayings of Jesus relative to marriage in the new age (Mar_12:25||), and those of St. Paul relative to the ‘spiritual body.’ The prevailing tendency at the present time among theologians, to regard heaven as a state of the soul rather than a place, belongs likewise to the region of opinion. The degree of its probability will be determined by one’s general view as to the nature of immortality.
Shailer Mathews.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

From "heaved up;" so "the heights" (Psa_148:1). The Greek ouranos and the Hebrew shamaim, are similarly derived. It is used of the surrounding air wherein "the fowls of heaven" fly (Gen_1:26, compare Gen_1:20); from whence the rain and hail fall (Deu_11:11). "I will make your heaven as iron," i.e. your sky hard and yielding no rain (Lev_26:19). "The four quarters of heaven" (Jer_49:36) and "the circuit of heaven" (Job_22:14) refer to the atmospheric heaven. By metaphor it is represented as a building with foundations and pillars (2Sa_22:8; Job_26:11), with an entrance gate (Gen_28:17) and windows opened to pour down rain (Gen_7:11, compare 2Ki_7:2; Mal_3:10). Job_37:18, "spread out the sky ... strong ... as a molten looking glass," not solid as "firmament" would imply, whereas the "expanse" is the true meaning (Gen_1:6; Isa_44:24), but phenomenally like one of the ancient mirrors made of firm molten polished metal.
Matthew, who is most Hebraistic in style, uses the plural, the Hebrew term for heaven being always so. "The heaven of heavens" (Deu_10:14) is a Hebraism for the highest heavens. Paul's "third heaven" (2Co_12:2) to which he was caught up implies this superlatively high heaven, which he reached after passing through the first heaven the air, and the second the sky of the stars (Eph_4:10). Heb_7:26, "made higher than the heavens," for Christ "passed through the heavens" (Heb_4:14, Greek), namely, the aerial heaven and the starry heaven, the veil through which our High Priest passed into the heaven of heavens, the immediate presence of God, as the Levitical high priest passed through the veil into the holy of belies. The visible heavens shall pass away to give place to the abiding new heaven and earth wherein shall dwell righteousness (Psa_102:25-27; Isa_65:17; Isa_66:22; 2Pe_3:7; 2Pe_3:13; Rev_21:1; Heb_12:26-28).
"The kingdom of the heavens" in Matthew, for "the kingdom of God" in Mark and Luke, is drawn from Dan_4:26, "the heavens do rule," (Dan_2:44) "the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed." It consists of many stages and phases, issuing at last in heaven being brought down fully to earth, and the tabernacle of God being with men (Rev_21:2-3; Rev_21:10, etc.). The plurality of the phases is expressed by "the kingdom of the heavens." The Bible is distinguished from the sacred books of false religions in not having minute details of heavenly bliss such as men's curiosity would crave. The grand feature of its blessedness is represented as consisting in holy personal union and immediate face to face communion with God and the Lamb; secondarily, that the saints are led by the Lamb to living fountains of water, and fed with the fruit of the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God, the antitype of the former Adamic paradise.
It is no longer merely a garden as Eden, but a heavenly "city" and garden combined, nature and art no longer mutually destructive, but enhancing each the charm of the other, individuality and society realized perfectly (Revelation 2-3, 7, 21-22). No separate temple, but the whole forming one vast "temple," finding its center in the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, who are the temple to each and all the king-priests reigning and serving there. This was the model Moses was shown on Sinai (Heb_7:1-6). The earthly tabernacle was its pattern and figure (Heb_9:23-24). The "altar" (Rev_6:9) and the "censer," etc. (Rev_8:3), the "temple" in heaven (Rev_11:19; Rev_14:17; Rev_15:5; Rev_15:8), are preliminary to the final state when there shall be "no temple therein" (Rev_21:22), for the whole shall be perfectly consecrated to God.
Negatives of present provisional conditions and evils form a large part of the subordinate description of heaven's bliss: no marriage (Luk_20:34-36), no meats for the belly (1Co_6:13), no death, no sorrow, crying, pain; no defilement, no curse, no night, no candle, no light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light (Rev_21:4; Rev_21:27; Rev_22:3; Rev_22:5). Heaven is not merely a state but a place. For it is the place where Christ's glorifed body now is; "the heaven must receive Him until the times of restitution of all things" (Act_3:21).
Thither He will "receive His people to Himself" after He hath "prepared a place for them" (Joh_14:2-4), that where He is there His servants may be (Joh_12:26). From heaven, which is God's court, angels are sent down to this earth, as the multitude of the heavenly host (distinct from the host of heaven," Act_7:42), and to which they return (Luk_2:13-15; Luk_22:43). God Himself is addressed "Our Father who art in heaven." His home is the parent home, the sacred hearth of the universe.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Heaven. There are four Hebrew words thus rendered, in the Old Testament, which we may briefly notice.
1. Raki'a, Authorized Version, firmament. See Firmament.
2. Shamayim. This is the word used in the expression "the heaven and the earth", or "the upper and lower regions". Gen_1:1.
3. Marom, used for heaven in Psa_18:16; Isa_24:18; Jer_25:30. Properly speaking, it means a mountain as in Psa_102:19; Eze_17:23.
4. Shechakim, "expanses", with reference to the extent of heaven. Deu_33:26; Job_35:5.
St. Paul's expression, "third heaven," 2Co_12:2, had led to much conjecture. Grotius said that the Jews divided the heaven into three parts, namely,
i. The air or atmosphere, where clouds gather;
ii. The firmament, in which the sun, moon and stars are fixed;
iii. The upper heaven, the abode of God and his angels, the invisible realm of holiness and happiness; the home of the children of God.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

the place of the more immediate residence of the Most High, Gen_14:19. The Jews enumerated three heavens: the first was the region of the air, where the birds fly, and which are therefore called “the fowls of heaven,” Job_35:11. It is in this sense also that we read of the dew of heaven, the clouds of heaven, and the wind of heaven. The second is that part of space in which are fixed the heavenly luminaries, the sun, moon, and stars, and which Moses was instructed to call “the firmament or expanse of heaven,” Gen_1:8. The third heaven is the seat of God and of the holy angels; the place into which Christ ascended after his resurrection, and into which St. Paul was caught up, though it is not like the other heavens perceptible to mortal view.
2. It is an opinion not destitute of probability, that the construction of the tabernacle, in which Jehovah dwelt by a visible symbol, termed “the cloud of glory,” was intended to be a type of heaven. In the holiest place of the tabernacle, “the glory of the Lord,” or visible emblem of his presence, rested between the cherubims; by the figures of which, the angelic host surrounding the throne of God in heaven was typified; and as that holiest part of the tabernacle was, by a thick vail, concealed from the sight of those who frequented it for the purposes of worship, so heaven, the habitation of God, is, by the vail of flesh, hidden from mortal eyes. Admitting the whole tabernacle, therefore, in which the worship of God was performed according to a ritual of divine appointment, to be a representation of the universe, we are taught by it this beautiful lesson, that the whole universe is the temple of God; but that in this vast temple there is “a most holy place,” where the Deity resides and manifests his presence to the angelic hosts and redeemed company who surround him. This view appears to be borne out by the clear and uniform testimony of Scripture,; and it is an interesting circumstance, that heaven, as represented by “the holiest of all,” is heaven as it is presented to the eye of Christian faith, the place where our Lord ministers as priest, to which believers now come in spirit, and where they are gathered together in the disembodied state. Thus, for instance, St. Paul tells the believing Hebrews, “Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written,” or are enrolled, “in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel,”
Heb_12:22-24. Here we are presented with the antitype of almost every leading circumstance of the Mosaic dispensation. Instead of the land of Canaan, we have heaven; for the earthly Jerusalem, we have the heavenly, the city of the living God; in place of the congregation of Israel after the flesh, we have the general assembly and church of the first-born, that is, all true believers “made perfect;” for just men in the imperfect state of the old dispensation, we have just men made perfect in evangelical knowledge and holiness; instead of Moses, the mediator of the old covenant, we have Jesus the Mediator of the new and everlasting covenant; and instead of the blood of slaughtered animals, which was sprinkled upon the Israelites, the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, to make a typical atonement, we have the blood of the Son of God, which was shed for the remission of the sins of the whole world; that blood which doth not, like the blood of Abel, call for vengeance but for mercy, which hath made peace between heaven and earth, effected the true and complete atonement for sin, and which therefore communicates peace to the conscience of every sinner that believes the Gospel.
3. Among the numerous refinements of modern times, that is one of the most remarkable which goes to deny the locality of heaven. “It is a state,” say many, “not a place.” But if that be the case, the very language of the Scriptures, in regard to this point, is calculated to mislead us. For that God resides in a particular part of the universe, where he makes his presence known to his intelligent creatures by some transcendent, visible glory, is an opinion that has prevailed among Jews and Christians, Greeks and Romans, yea, in every nation, civilized or savage, and in every age; and, since it is confirmed by revelation, why should it be doubted? Into this most holy place, the habitation of the Deity, Jesus, after his resurrection, ascended; and there, presenting his crucified body before the manifestation of the divine presence, which is called “the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,” he offered unto God the sacrifice of himself, and made atonement for the sins of his people. There he is sat down upon his throne, crowned with glory and honour, as king upon his holy hill of Zion, and continually officiates as our great High Priest, Advocate, and Intercessor, within the vail. There is his Father's house, into which he is gone before, to prepare mansions of bliss for his disciples; it is the kingdom conferred upon him as the reward of his righteousness, and of which he has taken possession as their forerunner, Act_1:11; Heb_6:19-20.
4. Some of the ancients imagined that the habitation of good men, after the resurrection, would be the sun; grounding this fanciful opinion on a mistaken interpretation of Psa_19:4, which they rendered, with the LXX and Vulgate, “He has set his tabernacle in the sun.” Others, again, have thought it to lie beyond the starry firmament, a notion less improbable than the former. Mr. Whiston supposes the air to be the mansion of the blessed, at least for the present; and he imagines that Christ is at the top of the atmosphere, and other spirits nearer to or more remote from him according to the degree of their moral purity, to which he conceives the specific gravity of their inseparable vehicles to be proportionable. Mr. Hallet has endeavoured to prove that they will dwell upon earth, when it shall be restored to its paradisaical state. The passages of Scripture, however, on which he grounds his hypothesis, are capable of another and very different interpretation. After all, we may observe, that the place of the blessed is a question of comparatively little importance; and we may cheerfully expect and pursue it, though we cannot answer a multitude of curious questions, relating to various circumstances that pertain to it. We have reason to believe that heaven will be a social state, and that its happiness will, in some measure, arise from mutual communion and converse, and the expressions and exercises of mutual benevolence. All the views presented to us of this eternal residence of good men are pure and noble; and form a striking contrast to the low hopes, and the gross and sensual conceptions of a future state, which distinguish the Pagan and Mohammedan systems. The Christian heaven may be described to be a state of eternal communion with God, and consecration to hallowed devotional and active services; from which will result an uninterrupted increase of knowledge, holiness, and joy, to the glorified and immortalized assembly of the redeemed.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

People in ancient times did not understand the universe the way we understand it today. For them the universe consisted of ‘the heavens and the earth’. The earth was where they lived and the heavens were the skies above, the place of the sun, moon, stars, clouds and birds (Gen_1:1; Gen_1:17; Gen_1:20; Gen_15:5; Deu_4:19; 1Ki_18:45; Mat_5:18; Heb_11:12).
A characteristic of human speech is that people often speak of realities and experiences beyond their understanding as being ‘over’, ‘above’ or ‘higher than’ them. Consequently, it was natural for people to speak of God as dwelling far, far above them in the highest place they could imagine, namely, heaven (Deu_26:15; 1Ki_8:30; 1Ki_8:32; Ezr_1:2; Psa_2:4; Mat_5:45; Mat_6:9; Mat_7:21).
The Bible therefore speaks of heaven as being ‘up’; not in the sense that it occupies a particular location in outer space, but in the sense that it represents a state of existence far beyond anything people can experience in the physical world. The Jews so identified heaven with God that they often used the word ‘heaven’ instead of ‘God’. This was also a sign of respect for God, for it prevented them from using his name irreverently (Dan_4:26; Mat_19:23-24; Luk_15:18; Joh_3:27; see KINGDOM OF GOD).
Heaven is the dwelling place not only of God, but also of the angelic beings who worship him (Neh_9:6; Mat_18:10; Mat_28:2; Mar_13:32; Luk_2:15). Jesus Christ came from heaven (Joh_3:31; Joh_6:38), returned to heaven after his death and resurrection (Act_1:11; Eph_1:20), at present appears in heaven on behalf of his people (Col_3:1; Heb_8:1; Heb_9:24) and will one day return from heaven to save his people and judge his enemies (Act_1:11; 1Th_4:16-17; 2Th_1:7-9).
Through the grace of God, heaven becomes also the eternal dwelling place of all those who through faith have become God’s children (Joh_14:1-3; 2Co_5:1-2; Col_1:5; Heb_12:22-23; 1Pe_1:3-5). For them, to be for ever in the presence of God is to be in paradise (Luk_23:43; 2Co_5:8; Php_1:23; cf. 2Co_12:2-3).
From the present viewpoint of earth, no one has any way of knowing what life in heaven will be like (1Jn_3:2). No doubt people will be identifiable in heaven by their individual personalities just as they are on earth. The form of life, however, will be different from the form of life in the present world (cf. Mat_22:23-30; 1Co_15:35-44; 1Co_15:50; see RESURRECTION).
When the Bible writers refer to some of the features of heaven, they are not giving literal descriptions of physical characteristics of heaven. They are merely using the only language available to them to try to illustrate and describe life as it will be in an entirely new order of existence (Mat_22:30; Mat_26:29; Joh_14:2; Heb_12:22-23; 1Jn_3:2).
This new order will find its fullest expression in what the Bible calls ‘a new heaven and a new earth’. This again distinguishes it from the physical universe as we know it at present (Isa_66:22; 2Pe_3:13; Revelation 21; Rev_22:1-5). Although the Bible writers give few details of life in the new order, that life will not be one of laziness or idleness. It will be a life of joyful activity in the worship and service of God (Rev_5:8-14; Rev_14:2-3; Rev_22:3).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

hev?'n. See ASTRONOMY.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Heaven, the state and place of blessedness in the life to come.
As we can have no distinct conception of those joys which never have been and never will be experienced by us here in their full extent, we have of course no words in human language to express them, and cannot therefore expect any clear description of them even in the Holy Scriptures. Hence the Bible describes this happiness sometimes in general terms designating its greatness (as in Rom_8:18-22; 2Co_4:17-18); and sometimes by various figurative images and modes of speech, borrowed from everything which we know to be attractive and desirable.
The following are the principal terms, both literal and figurative, which are applied in Scripture to the condition of future happiness.
Among the literal appellations we find 'life,' 'eternal life,' and 'life everlasting,' literally 'a happy life,' or 'eternal well-being' (Mat_7:14; Mat_19:16; Mat_19:29; Mat_25:46); 'glory,' 'the glory of God' (Rom_2:7; Rom_2:10; Rom_5:2); and 'peace' (Rom_2:10). Also 'an eternal weight of glory' (2Co_4:17); and 'salvation,' 'eternal salvation' (Heb_5:9), etc.
Among the figurative representations, we may place the word 'heaven' itself. The abode of departed spirits, to us who live upon earth, and while we remain here, is invisible and inaccessible, beyond the bounds of the visible world, and entirely separated from it. There they live in the highest well-being, and in a nearer connection with God and Christ than here below. This place and state cannot be designated by any more fit and brief expression than that which is found in almost every language, namely, 'heaven,'?a word in its primary and material signification denoting the region of the skies, or the visible heavens. It is there that the highest sanctuary or temple of God is situated, i.e., it is there that the omnipresent God most gloriously reveals Himself. This, too, is the abode of God's highest spiritual creation. Thither Christ was transported: He calls it the house of His Father, and says that He has therein prepared an abode for His followers (Joh_14:2).
This place, this 'heaven,' was never conceived of in ancient times, as it has been by some modern writers, as a particular planet or world, but as the wide expanse of heaven, high above the atmosphere, or starry heavens; hence it is sometimes called the third heaven, as being neither the atmosphere nor the starry heavens.
Another figurative name is 'Paradise,' taken from the abode of our first parents in their state of innocence, and transferred to the abode of the blessed (Luk_23:43; 2Co_12:4; Rev_2:7; Rev_22:2).
Again, this place is called 'the heavenly Jerusalem' (Gal_4:26; Heb_12:22; Rev_3:12), because the earthly Jerusalem was the capital city of the Jews, the royal residence, and the seat of divine worship; 'the kingdom of heaven' (Mat_25:1; Jam_2:5); the 'heavenly kingdom' (2Ti_4:18); the 'eternal kingdom' (2Pe_1:11). It is also called an 'eternal inheritance' (1Pe_1:4; Heb_9:15), meaning the possession and full enjoyment of happiness, typified by the residence of the ancient Hebrews in Palestine. The blessed are said 'to sit down at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,' that is, to be a sharer with the saints of old in the joys of salvation; 'to be in Abraham's bosom' (Luk_16:22; Mat_8:11), that is to sit near or next to Abraham [BOSOM]; 'to reign with Christ' 2Ti_2:11), i.e. to be distinguished, honored, and happy as he is?to enjoy regal felicities: to enjoy 'a Sabbath,' or 'rest' (Heb_4:10-11), indicating the happiness of pious Christians, both in this life and in the life to come.
All that we can with certainty know or infer from Scripture or reason respecting the blessedness of the life to come, may be arranged under the following particulars:? 1. We shall hereafter be entirely freed from the sufferings and adversities of this life. 2. Our future blessedness will involve a continuance of the real happiness of this life.
I. The entire exemption from suffering and all that causes suffering here, is expressed in the Scripture by words which denote rest, repose, refreshment, after performing labor and enduring affliction. But all the terms which are employed to express this condition, define (in the original) the promised 'rest,' as rest after labor, and exemption from toil and grief; and not the absence of employment, not inactivity or indolence (2Th_1:7; Heb_4:9; Heb_4:11; Rev_14:13; comp. 7:17).
This deliverance from the evils of our present life includes?
1. Deliverance from this earthly body, the seat of the lower principles of our nature and of our sinful corruption, and the source of so many evils and sufferings (2Co_5:8; 1Co_15:19).
2. Entire separation from the society of wicked; and evil-disposed persons, who, in various ways, injure the righteous man and embitter his life on earth (2Ti_4:18).
3. Upon this earth everything is inconstant, and subject to perpetual change; and nothing is capable of completely satisfying our expectations and desires. But in the world to come it will be different. The bliss of the saints will continue without interruption or change, without fear of termination, and without satiety (Luk_20:36; 2Co_4:16; 2Co_4:18; 1Pe_1:4; 1Pe_5:10; 1Jn_3:2, sq.).
II. Besides being exempt from all earthly trials, and having a continuance of that happiness which we had begun to enjoy even here, we have good reason to expect hereafter other rewards and joys, which stand in no natural or necessary connection with the present life. For our entire felicity would be extremely defective and scanty, were it to be confined merely to that which we carry with us from the present world, or were we compelled to stop short with that meager and elementary knowledge which we possess here. Besides the natural rewards of goodness, there must, therefore, be others, which are positive, and dependent on the will of the Supreme Legislator.
In the doctrine of the New Testament positive rewards are considered most obviously as belonging to our future felicity, and as constituting a principal part of it. For it always represents the joys of heaven as resulting strictly from the favor of God, and as being undeserved by those on whom they are bestowed. Hence there must be something more added to the natural good consequences of our actions, something which cannot be considered as the necessary and natural consequences of the good actions we may have here performed. But, on this subject, we know nothing more in general than this, that God will so appoint and order our circumstances, and make such arrangements, that the principal faculties of our souls?reason and affection, will be heightened and developed, so that we shall continually obtain more pure and distinct knowledge of the truth, and make continual advances in holiness.
Some theologians have supposed that the saints in heaven may be taught by immediate divine revelations, especially those who may enter the abodes of the blessed without knowledge, or with only a small measure of it; e.g. children and others who have died in ignorance, for which they themselves were not to blame. On this subject nothing is definitely taught in the Scriptures; but both Scripture and reason warrant us in believing that provision will be made for all such persons in the world to come. A principal part of our future happiness will consist, according to the Christian doctrine, in the enlarging and correcting of our knowledge respecting God, his nature, attributes, and works, and in the salutary application of this knowledge to our own moral benefit, to the increase of our faith, love, and obedience.
In the Scripture revelations respecting heaven Christ is always represented as one who will be personally visible to us, and whose personal, familiar intercourse and guidance we shall enjoy. Herein Christ himself places a chief part of the joy of the saints (Joh_14:17, etc.); and the apostles often describe the blessedness of the pious by the phrase being with Christ. To his guidance has God entrusted the human race, in heaven and on earth. And Paul says (2Co_4:6), we see 'the brightness of the divine glory in the face of Christ,' He is 'the visible representative of the invisible God' (Col_1:15). According to the representation contained in the Holy Scriptures, the saints will dwell together in the future world, and form, as it were a kingdom or state of God (Luke 16; Luk_20:38; Rom_8:10; Rev_7:9; Heb_12:22). They will there partake of a common felicity. Their enjoyment will doubtless be very much heightened by friendship, and by their confiding intercourse with each other.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

The word is used to identify certain spaces or certain conditions.

Since it is used in so many ways, we will in this paragraph just list a few, and these will cover a majority of the Scripture references.
1. The place where the birds fly (Gen_1:20; Lam_4:19).
2. The place in which are located the sun, moon and stars (Gen_1:14-17).
3. The place where the clouds are seen (Gen_7:11).
4. The place from which the lightnings come (Gen_19:24; Luk_9:54; Luk_10:18).
5. The place where GOD dwells (Gen_21:17; Gen_22:11).
6. The place where dew originates (Gen_27:28; Gen_27:39).
7. The place from which angels come (Gen_28:17).
8. The place from which rain comes (Deu_11:11; 1Ki_8:35; 2Ch_6:26; Jer_10:13).
9. The place which describes Israel's dispersion (Deu_30:4; Neh_1:9).
10. The place where the blessings of earth originate such as rain, dew, heat and cold. (Deu_33:13).
11. The place where storms form with thunder, lightning and wind. (Job_26:11).
12. The place where manna, the heavenly food, came from. (Psa_78:24; Joh_6:31, Joh_6:41).
13. The place which describes the supreme seat or throne of GOD. It is above all the other heavens. (1Ki_8:27; 2Ch_2:6; 2Ch_6:18).
14. The place where the believer, the Christian, the saved person, goes in his spirit when he dies.

We never read in the Bible that the believer "goes to Heaven." Probably the reason is that the Holy Spirit never calls our attention to the place where we are going, but always to the Person by whom we go, and to whom we go. We are said to be "absent from the body, and present with the Lord." We also read, "I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better." JESUS said, "I will receive you unto Myself." We should notice that it is always the Person, and never the place that gives comfort to the heart.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.

Heaven
There is, says Daubuz, a threefold world, and therefore a threefold heaven- the invisible, the visible, and the political among men, which last may be either civil or ecclesiastical. We shall consider these in the inverse order.
A. Terrestrially and Figuratively regarded. — Wherever the scene of a prophetic vision is laid, heaven signifies symbolically the ruling power or government; that is, the whole assembly of the ruling powers, which, in respect to the subjects on earth, are a political heaven, being over and ruling the subjects, as the natural heaven stands over and rules the earth. Thus, according to the subject, is the term to be limited; and therefore Artemidorus, writing in the times of the Roman emperors, makes Italy to be the heaven: “As heaven,” says he, “is the abode of gods, so is Italy of kings.” The Chinese call their monarch Tiencu, the son of heaven, meaning thereby the most powerful monarch. And thus, in Mat_24:30, heaven is synonymous to powers and glory; and when Jesus says, “The powers of the heaven shall be shaken,” it is easy to conceive that he meant that the kingdoms of the world should be overthrown to submit to his kingdom. Any government is a world; and therefore, in Isa_51:15-16, heaven and earth signify apolitical universe, a kingdom or polity. In Isa_65:17, a new heaven and a new earth signify a new government, new kingdom, new people. SEE HEAVEN AND EARTH.
B. Physically treated. —
I. Definitions and Distinctions. — The ancient Hebrews, for want of a single term like the κόσμος and the mundus of the Greeks and the Latins used the phrase heaven and earth (as in Gen_1:1; Jer_23:24; and Act_17:24, where “H. and E.”= “the world and all things therein”) to indicate the universe, or (as Barrow, Sermons on the Creed, Works [Oxford ed.], 4:556, expresses it) “those two regions, superior and inferior, into which the whole system of things is divided, together with all the beings that do reside in them, or do belong unto them, or are comprehended by them” (compare Pearson, On the Creed, who, on art. 1 [“Maker of H. and E.”], adduces the Rabbinical names of a triple division of the universe, making the sea, יָם, distinct from the יָשׁוּב, ἡ οἰκουμένη. Compare also the Nicene Creed, where another- division occurs of the universe into “things visible and invisible”). Deducting from this aggregate the idea expressed by “earth” SEE EARTH; SEE GEOGRAPHY, we get a residue of signification which exactly embraces “heaven.” Barrow (l. c.) well defines it as “all the superior region encompassing the globe of the earth, and from it on all sides extended to a distance inconceivably vast and spacious, with all its parts, and furniture, and inhabitants not only such things in it as are visible and material, but also those which are immaterial and invisible (Col_1:16).”
1. Wetstein (in a learned note on 2Co_12:2) and Eisenmenger (Entdecktes Judenthunm, 1, 460) state the Rabbinical opinion as asserting seven heavens. For the substance of Wetstein's note, see Stanley, Corinthiun, 1. c. This number arises confessedly from' the mystic: value of the numeral seven; “omnis septenarius dilectus est in saeculumine superis.” According to Rabbi Abia, there were six antechambers, as it were, or steps to the seventh heaven, which was the “ταμεῖον in quo Rex habitat”-the very presence-chamber of the divine King himself. Compare Origen, Contra Celsum, 6, 289, and Clemens Alex. Stromlata, 4, 636; 5, 692. In the last of these passages the prophet Zephaniah is mentioned, after some apocryphal tradition; to have been caught up into “the fifth heaven, the dwelling-place of the angels, in a glory sevenfold greater than the brightness of the sun.” In the Rabbinical point of view, the superb throne of king Solomon, with the six steps leading up to it was a symbol of the highest heaven with the throne of the Eternal, above the six inferior heavens (1Ki_10:18-20). These gradations of the celestial regions are probably meant in Amo_9:6, where, however, the entire creation is beautifully described by “the stories [or steps of the heaven,” for the empyreal heaven; “the troop [or globular aggregate, the terra firma; see A. Lapide, ad loc.] of the earth,” and “the waters of the sea” [including the atmosphere, whence the waters are “poured out upon the face of the earth”]. As for the threesald division of the celestial regions mentioned in the text, Meyer thinks it to be a fiction of the learned Grotius, on the ground of the Rabbinical seven heavens. But this- censure is premature; for
(1) it is very doubtful whether this hebdomadal division is as old as Paul's time;
(2) it is certain that the Rabbinical doctors are not unanimous about the number seven. Rabbi Judah (Chagiga, fol. 12:2, and Aboth Nathan, 37) says there are “two heavens,” after Deu_10:14. This agrees with Grotius's statement, if we combine his nubiferum (רקיע) and astriferumi (שׁמים) into one region of physical heavens (as indeed Moses does himself in Gen_1:14-15; Gen_1:17; Gen_1:20), and reserve his angeliferum for the שמי השמים “the heaven of heavens,” the supernal region of spiritual beings, Milton's “Empyrean” (P. L. 7:sub fin.). See bishop Pearson's note, On the Creed (ed. Chevallier), p. 91. The learned note of De Wette on 2Co_12:2 is also worth consulting.
(3) The Targum on 2Ch_6:18 (as quoted by Dr. Gill, Comment. 2 Corinth. 1. c.), expressly mentions the triple distinction of supreme, middle, and lower heavens. Indeed, there is an accumulation of the threefold classification. Thus, in Tseror lansamsor, fol. 1, 4, and 3:2,3, and 82, 2, three worlds are mentioned. The doctors of the Cabbala also hold the opinion of three worlds, Zohar, Numbers fol. 66, 3. And of the highest world there is further a tripartite division, of angels, עוֹלָם הִמִּלְאָכַים; of souls, נְפָשׁוֹת; and of spirits, הָרוּחַים עוֹלָם. See Buxtorf's Lex Rabbin. col. 1620, who refers to D. Kimchi on Psa_19:9. Paul, besides the well-known 2Co_12:2, refers again, only less pointedly, to a plurality of heavens, as in Eph_4:10. See Olshausen (ed. Clark) on the former passage.
2. Accordingly, Barrow (p. 558, with whom compare Grotius and Drusius on 2Co_12:2) ascribes to the Jews the notion that there are three heavens: Coelum nubiferum, or the firmament; Ccelum astriferum, the starry heavens; Coelum angeliferum, or “the heaven of heavens,” where the angels reside, “the third heaven” of Paul. This same notion prevails in the fathers. Thus St. Gregory of Nyssa (Hexaem. , 42) describes the first of these heavens as the limited space of the denser air (τὸν ὅρον τοῦ παχυμερεστέπου ἀἐρος), within which arrange the clouds, the winds, and the birds; the second is the region in which wander the planets and the stars (ἐνῳ δὲ πλανῆ ται τῶν ἀστέρων διαπορεύοται), hence aptly called by Hesychius κατηστρισμένον, locum stelliferum; while the third is the very summit of the visible creation (τὸ ο῏υν ἀκρότατον τοῦ αἰσθηροῦ κόσμου), Paul's third heaven, higher than the aerial and stellar world, cognizable [not by the eye, but] by the mind alone (ἐν στασίμ῎ῳ καὶ νοητῇ φύσει γενόμενος), which Damascene calls the heaven of heavens, the prime heaven beyond all others (οὐρανὸς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, ὸ πρῶτος οὐρανός, Orthod. Fid. lib. 2, c. 6:p. 83); or, according to St. Basil (In Jesaiarm, visione 2, tom. 1, 813), the throne of God (θρόνος θεοῦ), and to Justin Martyr (Quaest. et Resp. ad Graecos, ad ult. Quaest. p. 236), the house and throne of God (οϊvκος καὶ θρόνος τοῦ θεοῦ).
II. Scripture Passages arranged according to these Distintions. — This latter division of the celestial regions is very convenient and quite Biblical.
(I.) Under the first head, caelum nubiferum, the following phrases naturally fall —
(a) “Fowl,” or “fowls of the heaven, of the air,” see Gen_2:19; Gen_7:3; Gen_7:23; Gen_9:2; Deu_4:17; Deu_28:26; 1Ki_21:24; Job_12:7; Job_28:21; Job_35:11; Psa_8:8; Psa_79:2; Psa_104:12; Jer_7:33 et passim; Eze_29:5 et passim; Dan_2:38; Hos_2:18; Hos_4:3; Hos_7:12; Zep_1:3; Mar_4:3 (τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ); Luk_8:5; Luk_9:58; Luk_13:19; Act_10:12; Act_11:6 in all which passages the same original words in the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek Scriptures (שָׁמִיַן שָׁמִיַם. οὐρανίο) are with equal propriety rendered indifferently “air” and “heaven” — similarly we read of “the path of the eagle in the air” (Pro_30:19); of “the eagles of heaven” (Lam_4:19); of “the stork of the heaven” (Jer_8:7); and of” birds of heaven” in general (Ecc_10:20; Jer_4:25). In addition to these zoological terms, we have meteorological facts included under the same original words; e.g.
(b) “The dew of heaven” (Gen_27:28; Gen_27:39; Deu_33:28; Dan_4:15 et passim; Haggai 10 Zec_8:12):
(c) “The clouds of heaven” (1Ki_18:45; Psa_147:8; Dan_7:13; Mat_24:30; Mat_26:64; Mar_14:62):
(d) The frost of heaven (Job_38:29):
(e) The winds of heaven (1 Kings 18:55; Psa_78:26; Dan_8:8; Dan_11:4; Zec_2:6; Zec_6:5 [see margin]; Mat_24:31; Mar_13:27):
(f) The rain of heaven (Gen_8:2; Deu_11:11; Deu_28:12; Jer_14:22; Act_14:17 [οὐρανόθεν ὑετούς]; Jam_5:18; Rev_18:6):
(g) Lightning, with thunder (Job_37:3-4; Luk_17:24).
(II.) Celum astriferum. The vast spaces of which astronomy takes cognizance are frequently referred to: e.g.
(a) in the phrase “host of heaven,” in Deu_17:3; Jer_8:2; Mat_24:29 [δυνάμεις τῶν οὐρανῶν]; a sense which is obviously not to be confounded with another signification of the same phrase, as in Luk_2:13 SEE ANGELS
(b) Lights of heaven (Gen_1:14-16; Eze_32:8):
(c) Stars of heaven (Gen_22:17; Gen_26:4; Exo_32:13; Deu_1:10; Deu_10:22; Deu_28:62; Jdg_5:20; Neh_9:23; Isa_13:10, Nah_3:16; Heb_11:12).
(III.) Calum angeliferums. It would exceed our limits if we were to collect the descriptive phrases which revelation has given us of heaven in its sublimest sense, we content ourselves with indicating one or two of the most obvious:
(a) The heaven of heavens (Deu_10:14; 1Ki_8:27; 2Ch_2:6; 2Ch_2:18; Neh_9:6 Psa_115:16; Psa_148:4 :
(b) The third heavens (2Co_12:2):
(c) The high and lofty [place] (Isa_47:15): (d) The highest (Mat_21:9; Mar_11:10; Luk_2:14, compared with Psalm 168:1). This heavenly sublimity was graciously brought down to Jewish apprehension in the sacred symbol of their Tabernacle and Temple, which they reverenced (especially in the adytum of “the Holy of Holies”) as “the place where God's honor dwelt” (Psa_26:8), and amidst the sculptured types of his celestial retinue, in the cherubim of the mercy-seat (2Ki_19:15; Psa_80:1 : Isa_37:16). III. Meaning of the Terms used in the Original. —
1. By far the most frequent designation of heaven in the Hebrew Scriptures is שָׁמִיַם, shama'yim, which the older lexicographers [see Cocceius, Lex. s.v.] regarded as the dual, but which Gesenius and Fürst have restored to the dignity, which St. Jerome gave it, of the plural of an obsolete noun, שָׁמִי as (גּוֹרַם. plur. omf גּוֹי and מִיַם from מִי). According to these recent scholars, the idea expressed by the word is height, elevation (Gesenius, Thes. p. 1453; Furst, Hebr. Wort. 2, 467). In this respect of: its essential meaning it resembles the Greek obpavoi [from the radical 6 p, denoting height] (Pott, Etymol. Forsch. 1, 123, ed. 1). Pott's rendering of this root op, by “sich erheben,” reminds us of our own beautiful word heaven, which thus enters into brotherhood of signification with the grand idea of the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek.. Professor Bosworth, in his Anglo-Sax. Dict. under the verb hebban, to raise or elevate, gives the kindred words of the whole Teutonic family, and deduces there from the noun heofon or heofen, in the sense of heaven. — And although the primary notion of the Latin caelum (akin to κοῖλος and our hollow) is the less sublime one of a covered or vaulted space, yet the loftier sense of elevation has prevailed, both in the original (see White and Riddle, s.v. Caelum) and in the derived languages (comp. French ciel, and the English word ceiling)
2. Closely allied in meaning, though unconnected in origin with שָׁמִיַם, is the oft-recurring מָרוֹם, mardm'. This word is never Englished heaven, but “heights,” or “high place,” or “high places.” There can, however, be no doubt of its celestial signification (and that in the grandest degree) in such passages as Psa_68:18 [Hebr. 19]; 93:4; 102:19 [or in the Hebr. Bib. 20, where ַמְּרוֹם קָדנְשׁו ֹ is equal to the מַשָּׁמִיַםof the parallel clause]; similarly, Job_31:2; Isa_57:15; Jer_25:30. Dr. Kalisch (Genesis, Introd. p. 21) says “It was a common belief among all ancient nations that at the summit of the shadow of the earth, or on the top of the highest mountain of the earth, which reaches with its crest into heaven the gods have their palace or hall of assembly,” and he instances “the Babylonian Albordsh, the chief abode of Ormuzd, among the heights of the Caucasus; and the Hindoo Meru; and the Chinese Kulkun (or Kaen-lun); and the Greek Olympus (and Atlas); and the Arabian Caf; and the Parsee Tireh.” He, however, while strongly and indeed most properly censuring the identification of Mount Meru with Mount Moriah (which had hastily been conjectured from “the accidental resemblance of the names”), deems it improbable that the Israelites should have entertained, like other ancient nations, the notion of local height for the abode of him whose “glory the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain;” and this he supposes on the ground that such a notion “rests essentially on polytheistic ideas.” Surely the learned commentator is premature in both these statements.
(1.) No such improbability, in fact, unhappily, can be predicated of the Israelites, who in ancient times (notwithstanding the divine prohibitions) exhibited a constant tendency, to the ritual of their בָּמוֹת, or “high places.” Gesenius makes a more correct statement when he says [Hebr. Lex. by Robinson, p. 138], “The Hebrews, like most other ancient nations, supposed that sacred rites performed on high places were particularly acceptable to the Deity.. Hence they were accustomed to offer sacrifices upon mountains and hills, both to idols and to God himself (1Sa_9:12 sq.; 1 Chronicles 13:29 sq.; 1Ki_3:4; 2Ki_12:2-3; Isa_45:7); and also to build there chapels, fanes, tabernacles (בָּתְּי הִבָּמוֹת, 1Ki_13:32; 2Ki_17:29), with their priests and other ministers of the sacred rites (כֹּהֲנֵי הִבָּמוֹת, 1Ki_12:32; 2Ki_17:32). So tenacious of this ancient custom were not only the ten tribes, but also all the Jews, that, even after the building of Solomon's Temple, in spite of the express law of Deuteronomy 12, they continued to erect such chapels on the mountains around Jerusalem.”
(2.) Neither from the character of Jehovah, as the God of Israel, can the improbability be maintained, as if it were of the essence of polytheism only to localize Deity on mountain heights. “The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy,” in the proclamation which he is pleased to make of his own style, does not limit his abode to celestial sublimities; in one of the finest passages of even Isaiah's poetry, God claims as one of the stations of his glory the shrine of “a contrite and humble spirit” (Isa_57:15). His loftiest attributes, therefore, are not compromised, nor is the amplitude of his omnipresence compressed by an earthly residence. Accordingly, the same Jehovah who “walketh on the high places, בִּמוֹת, of the earth” (Amo_4:13); who “treadeth on the fastnesses, בָּמוֹת, of the sea” (Job_9:8); and “who ascendeth above the heights, בָּמוֹת, of the clouds,” was pleased to consecrate Zion as his dwelling-place (Psa_87:2), and his rest (Psa_132:13-14). Hence we find the same word, מָרוֹם, which is often descriptive of the sublimest heaven, used of Zion, which Ezekiel calls “the mountain of the height of Israel,” הִר מְרוֹם יַשְׂרָאֵל (Eze_17:23; Eze_20:40; Eze_34:14).
3. גִּלְגֵּל, galgal'. This word, which literally meaning a wheel, admirably expresses rotatory movement, is actually rendered “heaven” in the A.V. of Psa_77:18 : “The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven,” בִּגִּלְגִּל[Sept. ἐν τῷ τροχῷ; Vulg. in rota]. Luther's version agrees with the A. Vers. in Himmel; and Dathe renders per orbem, which is ambiguous, being as expressive, to say the least, of the globe of the earth as of the circle of heaven. The Targum (in Walton, vol. iii) on the passage gives; בּגלגלא(il rota), which is as indeterminate as the original, as the Syriac also seems to be. De Wette (and after him Justus Olshausen, Die Ps erklärt, 1. c.) renders the phrase “in the whirlwind.” Maurer, who disapproves of this rendering, explains the phrase “rotated.” But, amidst the uncertainty of the versions, we are disposed to think that it was not without good reason that our translators, in departing from the previous version (see Psalter, ad loc., which has, “the voice of thy thunder was heard round about”), deliberately rendered the passage in the heaven, as if the גלגלwere the correlative of תֵּבֵל, both being poetic words, and both together equalled the heaven and the earth. In Jam_3:6, the remarkable phrase, τὸν τροχὸν τῆς γενέσεως, the course, circuit, or wheel of nature, is akin to our גלגל. (The Syriac renders the τροχόν by the same word, which occurs in the psalm as the equivalent of גִּלְגּל, Schaaf's Lex. Syr.; and of the same indefiniteness of signification.) That the general sense “heaven” best expresses the force of Psa_77:18, is rendered probable, moreover, by the description which Josephus gives (Ant. 2, 16, 3) of the destruction of Pharaoh's host in the Red Sea, the subject of that part of the psalm, “Showers of rain descended from heaven, ἀπ, οὐρανοῦ, with dreadful thunders and lightning, and flashes of fire; thunderbolts were darted upon them, nor were there ‘any indications of God's wrath upon men wanting on that dark and dismal night.”
4. As the words we have reviewed indicate the height and rotation of the heavens, so the two we have yet to examine exhibit another characteristic of equal prominence, the breadth and expanse of the celestial regions. These are שִׁחִק, shach'ak (generally used in the plural) and רָקַיע. They occur together in Job_37:18 : “Hast thou with him spread out (תִּרַקַיע) the sky or expanse of heaven?” — (לַשְׁחָקַים, where לis the sign of the objective). We must examine them separately. The root שָׁחִקis explained by Gesenius to grind to powder, and then to expand by rubbing or beating. Meier (Hebr. Wurzelw. — b. p. 446) compares it with the Arabic shachaka, to make fine, to attenuate (whence the noun shachim, a thin cloud). With him agrees Furst (Hebrew. — b. 2, 433). The Heb. subst. is therefore well adapted to designate the sky region of heaven with its cloud dust, whether fine or dense. Accordingly, the meaning of the word in its various passages curiously oscillates between sky and cloud. When Moses, in Deu_33:26, lauds Jehovah's “riding in his excellence on the sky;” and when, in 2Sa_22:12, and repeated in Psa_18:11 (12), David speaks of “the thick clouds of the skies;” when Job (Job_37:18) asks, “Hast thou with him spread out the sky?” when the Psalmist (Psa_77:17 [18 ]) speaks of “the skies sending out a sound,” and the prophet (Isa_45:8), figuratively, of their “pouring down righteousness;” when, finally, Jer_51:9, by a frequently occurring simile [comp. Rev_18:5, ἠκολοῦθησαν αὐτῆς αἱ ἁμαρτίαι ἄχρι τοῦ οὐρανοῦ], describes the judgment of Babylon as “lifted up even to the skies,” in every instance our word שְׁחָקיםin the plural is employed. The same word in the same form is translated “clouds” in Job_35:5; Job_36:28; Job_37:21; Job_38:37; in Psa_36:5 (6); 57, 10 (11); Psa_68:34 (35) [margin, “heavens”]; Psa_78:23; in Pro_3:20; Pro_8:28. The prevalent sense of this word, we thus see, is a meteorological one, and falls under our first head of caelum nubiferum: its connection with the other two heads is much slighter. It bears probably an astronomical sense in Psa_89:37 (38), where “the faithful witness in heaven” seems to be in apposition to the sun and the moon (Bellarmine, ad loc.), although some suppose the expression to mean the rainbow, “the witness” of God's covenant with Noah; Gen_9:13 sq. (see J. Olshausen, ad loc.). This is perhaps the only instance of its falling under the class caelum astriferum; nor have we a much more frequent reference to the higher sense of the coehln angeliferum (Psa_89:6 containing the only explicit allusion to this sense) unless, with Gesenius, Thes. s.v. we refer Psalm 58:35 also to it. More probably in Deu_33:26 (where it is parallel with שָׁמִיַם, and in the highly poetical passages of Isa_45:8, and Jer_51:9, our word שְׁחָקַיםmay be best regarded as designating the empyreal heavens.
5. We have already noticed the connection between שְׁחָקַיםand our only remaining word רָקַיע, raki'a, from their being associated by the sacred writer in the same sentence (Job_37:18); it tends to corroborate this connection that, on comparing Gen_1:6 (and seven other passages in the same chapter) with Deu_33:26, we find רָקַיעof the former sentence, and שְׁחָקַיםof the latter, both rendered by the Sept. οτερέωμα and firmamentum in the Vulg., whence the word “firmament” passed into our A.V. This word is now a well-understood term in astronomy, synonymous with sky or else the general heavens, undivested by the discoveries of science of the special signification which it bore in the ancient astronomy. SEE FIRMAMENT.
For a clear exposition of all the Scripture passages which bear on the subject, we may refer the reader to professor Dawson's Archaia, especially chap. 8, and to Dr. M'Caul on The Mosaic Record of Creation (or, what is substantially the same treatise in a more accessible form, his Notes on the First Chapter of Genesis, sec. 9:p. 32-44). We must be content here, in reference to our term רָקַיעִ, to observe that, when we regard its origin (from the root רָקִע, to spread out or expand by beating; Gesen. s.v.; Fuller, Misc. Sacr. 1, 6; Furst, Hebr. — w. — b. s.v.), and its connection with, and illustration by, such words as שְׁחָקַים, clouds, and the verbs טָפִח(Isa_48:13, “My right hand hath spread out the heavens”) and נָטָה(Isa_40:22, ‘‘Who stretcheth out the heavens like a curtain” [literally, like fineness], “and spreadeth them out as a tent”), we are astonished at certain rationalistic attempts to control the meaning of an intelligible term, which fits in easily and consistently with the nature of things, by a few poetical metaphors, that are themselves capable of a consistent sense when lcell subordinate to the plainer passages of prose. The fuller expression is רְקַיִע הִשָּׁמִיַם(Gen_1:14 sq.). That Moses understood it to mean a solid expanse is clear from his representing it as the barrier between the upper and lower waters (Gen_1:6 sq.), i.e. as separating the reservoir of the celestial ocean (Psa_104:3; Psa_29:3) from the waters of the earth, or those on which the earth was supposed to float (Psa_136:6). Through its open lattices (אֲיֻבּוֹת, Gen_7:11; 2Ki_7:2; 2Ki_7:19; compare κόσκινον, Aristophanes, Nub. 373) or doors (דַּלָתִיַם, Psa_78:23) the dew, and snow, and hail are poured upon the earth (Job_38:22; Job_38:37, where we have the curious expression “bottles of heaven,” “utres caeli”). This firm vault, which Job describes as being “strong as a molten looking-glass” (Job_37:18), is transparent, like pellucid sapphire, and splendid as crystal (Dan_12:3; Exo_24:10; Eze_1:22; Rev_4:6), over which rests the throne of God (Isa_66:1; Eze_1:26), and which is opened for the descent of angels, or for prophetic visions (Gen_28:17; Eze_1:1; Act_7:56; Act_10:11). In it, like gems or golden lamps, the stars are fixed to give light to the earth, and regulate the seasons (Gen_1:14-19); and the whole magnificent, immeasurable structure (Jer_31:37) is supported by the mountains as its pillars, or strong foundations (Psa_18:7; 2Sa_22:8; Job_24:11). Similarly the Greeks believed in an οὐρανὸς πολύχαλκος (Hom. II. 5, 504), or σιδήρεος (Horn. Od. 15, 328), or ἀδάματος (Orph. Hymn. ad Coelum), which the philosophers called οτερέμνιον or κρυσταλλοειδές (Empedocles, ap. Plut. de Phil. plac. 2, 11; Artemid. ap. Sen. Nat. Quaest. 7, 13; quoted by Gesenius, s.v.). It is clear that very many of the above notions were metaphors resulting from the simple primitive conception, and that later writers among the Hebrews had arrived at more scientific views, although, of course, they retained much of the old phraseology, and are fluctuating and undecided in their terms. ‘Elsewhere, for instance, the heavens are likened to a curtain (Psa_104:2; Isa_40:22). SEE COSMOGONY.
IV. Metaphorical Application of the Visible Heavens. — A door opened in heaven is the beginning of a new revelation. To ascend up into heaven signifies to be in full power. Thus is the symbol to be understood in Isa_14:13-14, where the king of Babylon says, “I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” To descend from heaven signifies, symbolically, to act by a commission from heaven. Thus our Savior uses the word “descending” (Joh_1:51) in speaking of the angels acting by divine commission, at the command of the Son of man. To fall from heaven signifies to lose power and authority, to be deprived of the power to govern, to revolt or apostatize.
The heaven opened. The natural heaven, being the symbol of the governing part of the political world, a new face in the natural, represents a new face in the political. Or the heaven may be said to be opened when the day appears, and consequently shut when night' comes on, as appears from Virgil (AEn. 10, 1), “The gates of heaven unfold,” etc. Thus the Scripture, in a poetical manner, speaks of the doors of heaven (Psa_78:23); of the heaven being shut (1Ki_8:35); and in Eze_1:1, the heaven is said to be opened. Midst of heaven may be the air, or the region between heaven and earth; or the middle station between the corrupted earth and the throne of God in heaven. In this sense, the air is the proper place where God's threatenings and judgments should be denounced. Thus, in 1Ch_21:16, it is said that David saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven as he was just going to destroy Jerusalem with the pestilence. The angel's hovering there was to show that there was room to pray for mercy, just as God was going to inflict the punishment: it had not as yet done any execution.
C. Spiritual and Everlasting Sense, i.e. the state and place of blessedness in the life to come. Of the nature of this blessedness it is not possible that we should form any adequate conception, and, consequently, that any precise information respecting it should be given to us. Man, indeed, usually conceives the joys of heaven to be the same as, or at least to resemble, the pleasures of this world; and each one hopes to obtain with certainty, and to enjoy in full measure beyond the grave, that which he holds most dear upon earth-those favorite employments or particular delights which he ardently longs for here, but which he can seldom or never enjoy in this world, or in the enjoyment of which he is never fully satisfied. But one who reflects soberly on the subject will readily see that the happiness of heaven must be a very different thing from earthly happiness. In this world the highest pleasures of which our nature is capable satiate by their continuance, and soon lose the power of giving positive enjoyment. This alone is sufficient to show that the bliss of the future world must be of an entirely different kind from what is called earthly joy and happiness, if we are to be there truly happy, and happy brever. But since we can have no distinct conception of those joys which never have been and never will be experienced by us here in their full extent, we have, of course, no words in human language to express them, and cannot therefore expect any clear description of them even in the holy Scriptures. Hence the Bible describes this happiness sometimes in general terms, designating its greatness (as in Rom_8:18-22; 2Co_4:17-18), and sometimes by various figurative images and modes of speech, borrowed from everything which we know to be attractive and desirable.
The greater part of these images were already common among the Jewish contemporaries of Christ; but Christ and his apostles employed them in a purer sense than the great multitude of the Jews. The Orientals are rich in such figures. They were employed by Mohammed, who carried them, as his manner was, to an extravagant excess, but who at the same time said expressly that they were mere figures, although many of his followers afterwards understood them literally, as has been often done in a similar way by many Christians.
The following are the principal terms, both literal and figurative, which are applied in Scripture to the condition of future happiness.
a. Among the literal appellations we find ζωή, ζωὴ ηἰθ῎νιος, which, according to Hebrew usage, signify “a happy life,” or “eternal well-being,” and are the words rendered “life,” “eternal life,” and “life everlasting” in the A. Vers. (e.g. Mat_7:14; Mat_19:16; Mat_19:29; Mat_25:46): δόξα, δόξα τοῦ θεοῦ, ‘‘glory,” “the glory of God” (Rom_2:7; Rom_2:10; Rom_5:2); and εἰρηνη, ,” peace” (Rom_2:10). Also αἰώνιον βάρος δόξης, “an eternal weight of glory” (2Co_4:17); and σωτηρία, σωτηρία αἰώνιος, “salvation,” “eternal salvation” (Heb_5:9), etc.
b. Among the figurative representations we may place the word “heaven” itself. The abode of departed spirits, to us who live upon the earth, and while we remain here, is invisible and inaccessible, beyond the bounds of the visible world, and entirely separated from it. There they live in the highest well being, and in a nearer connection with God and Christ than here below. This place and state cannot be designated by any more fit and brief expression than that which is found in almost every language, namely, “heaven” — a word in its primary and material signification denoting the region of the skies, or the visible heavens. This word, in Heb. שָׁמִיַם, in Gr. οὐρανός, is therefore frequently employed by the sacred writers, as above exemplified. It is there that the highest sanctuary or temple of God is situated, i.e. it is there that the omnipresent God most gloriously reveals himself. This, too, is the abode of (rod's highest spiritual creation. Thither Christ was transported: he calls it the house of his Father, and says that he has therein prepared an abode for his followers (Joh_14:2).
This place, this “heaven,” was never conceived of in ancient times, as it has been by some modern writers, as a particular planet or world, but as the wide expanse of heaven, high above the atmosphere or starry heavens; hence it is sometimes called the third heaven, as being neither the atmosphere nor the starry heavens. Another figurative name is “Paradise,” taken from the abode of our first parents in their state of innocence, and transferred to the abode of the blessed (Luk_23:43; 2Co_12:4; Rev_2:7; Rev_22:2).
Again, this place is called “the heavenly Jerusalem” (Gal_4:26; Heb_12:22; Rev_3:12), because the earthly Jerusalem was the capital city of the Jews, the royal residence, and the seat of divine worship; the “kingdom of heaven” (Mat_25:1; Jam_2:5); the “heavenly kingdom” (2Ti_4:18); the “eternal kingdom” (2Pe_1:11). It is also called an “eternal inheritance” (1Pe_1:4; Heb_9:15), meaning the possession and full enjoyment of happiness, typified by the residence of the ancient Hebrews in Palestine. The blessed are said “to sit down at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” that is, to be a sharer with the saints of old in the joys of salvation; “to be in Abraham's bosom” (Luk_16:22; Mat_8:11), that is, to sit near or next to Abraham [see BOSOM]; “to reign with Christ” (2Ti_2:11), i.e. to be distinguished, honored, and happy as he is to enjoy regal felicities, to enjoy “a Sabbath,” or “rest” (Heb_4:10-11), indicating the happiness of pious Christians both in this life and in the life to come.
All that we can with certainty know or infer from Scripture or reason respecting the blessedness of the life to come may be arranged under the following particulars:
I. We shall hereafter be entirely freed from the sufferings and adversities of this life.
II. Our future blessedness will involve a continuance of the real happiness of this life.
I. The entire exemption from suffering, and all that causes suffering here, is expressed in Scripture by words which denote rest, repose, refreshment, after performing labor and enduring affliction. But all the terms which are employed to express this condition define (in the original) the promised “rest” as rest after labor, and exemption from toil and grief, and not the absence of employment, not inactivity or indolence (2Th_1:7; Heb_4:9; Heb_4:11; Rev_14:13; compare 7:17). This deliverance from the evils of our present life includes, 1. Deliverance from this earthly body, the seat of the lower principles of our nature and of our sinful corruption, and the source of so many evils and sufferings (2Co_6:1-2; 1Co_15:42-50).
2. Entire separation from the society of wicked and evil-disposed persons, who in various ways injure the righteous man and embitter his life on earth (2Ti_4:18). It is hence accounted a part of the felicity even of Christ himself in heaven to be “separate from sinners” (Heb_7:26).
3. Upon this earth everything is inconstant and subject to perpetual change, and nothing is capable of completely satisfying our expectations and desires. But in the world to come it will be different. The bliss of the saints will continue without interruption or change, without fear of termination, and without satiety (Luk_20:36; 2Co_4:16; 2Co_4:18; 1Pe_1:4; 1Pe_5:10; 1Jn_3:2 sq.).
II. Besides being exempt from all earthly trials, and having a continuance of that happiness which we had begun to enjoy even here, we have good reason to expect hereafter other rewards and joys, which stand in no natural or necessary connection with the present life; for our entire felicity would be extremely defective and scanty were it to be confined merely to that which we carry with us from the present world, to that peace and joy of soul which result from reflecting on what we may have done which is good and pleasing in the sight of God, since even the best men will always discover great imperfections in all that they have done. Our felicity would also be incomplete were we compelled to stop short with that meager and elementary knowledge which we take with us from this world-that knowledge so broken up into fragments, and yielding so little fruit, and which, poor as it is, many good men, from lack of opportunity, and without any fault on their part, never here acquire. Besides the natural rewards of goodness, there must therefore be others which are positive, and dependent on the will of the supreme Legislator.
On this point almost all philosophers are, for the above reasons, agreed — even those who will admit of no positive punishments in the world to come. But, for want of accurate knowledge of the state of things in the future world, we can say nothing definite and certain as to the nature of the positive rewards. In the doctrine of the New Testament, however, positive rewards are considered most obviously as belonging to our future felicity, and as constituting a principal part of it; for it always represents the joys of heaven as resulting strictly from the favor of God, and as being undeserved by those on whom they are bestowed. Hence there must be something more added to the natural good consequences of our actions here performed. But on this subject we know nothing more in general than this, that God will so appoint and order our circumstances, and make such arrangements, that the principal faculties of our souls, reason and affection, will be heightened and developed, so that we shall continually obtain more pure and distinct knowledge of the truth, and make continual advances in holiness.
We may remark that in this life God has very wisely allotted various capacities, powers, and talents, in different ways and degrees, to different men, according to the various ends for which he designs them, and the business on which he employs them. Now there is not the least reason to suppose that God will abolish this variety in the future world; it will rather continue there in all its extent. We must suppose, then, that there will be, even in the heavenly world, a diversity of tastes, of labors, and of employments, and that to one person this, to another that field, in the boundless kingdom of truth and of useful occupation, will be assigned for his cultivation, according to his peculiar powers, qualifications, and tastes. A presentiment of this truth is contained in the idea, which was widely diffused throughout the ancient world, viz. that the manes will continue to prosecute in the future life the employments to which they had been here accustomed. At least such arrangements will doubtless be made by God in the future life that each individual will there develop more and more the germs implanted within him by the hand of the Creator; and will be able, more fully than he ever could do here, to satisfy the wants of his intellectual nature, and thus to make continual progress in the knowledge of everything worthy of being known, of which he could only learn the simplest elements in this world; and he will be able to do this in such a way that the increase of knowledge will not be detrimental to piety, as it often proves on earth, but rather promotive of it. To the sincere and ardent searcher after truth it is a rejoicing and consoling thought that-he will be able hereafter to perfect that knowledge which here has so many deficiencies (1Co_13:9).
But there is danger of going too far on this point, and of falling into strange misconceptions. Various as the tastes and wants of men in the future world will doubtless be, they will still be in many respects different from what they are here, because the whole sphere of action, and the objects by which we shall there be surrounded, will be different. We shall there have a changed and more perfect body, and by this single circumstance shall be freed at once from many of the wants and inclinations which have their seat in the earthly body. This will also contribute much to rectify, enlarge, and perfect our knowledge. Many things which seem to us very important and essential during this our state of infancy upon earth will hereafter doubtless appear in a different light: we shall look upon them as trifles and children's play, and employ ourselves in more important occupations, the utility and interest of which we have never before imagined.
Some theologians have supposed that the saints in heaven may be taught by immediate divine revelations (lumen gloriae), especially those who may enter the abodes of the blessed without knowledge, or with only a small measure of it; e.g. children and others who have died in ignorance, for which they themselves were not to blame. On this subject nothing is definitely taught in the Scriptures, but both Scripture and reason warrant us in believing that provision will be made for all such persons in the world to come. A principal part of our future happiness will consist, according to the Christian doctrine, in the enlarging and correcting of our knowledge respecting God, his nature, attributes, and works, and in the salutary application of this knowledge to our own moral benefit, to the increase of our faith, love, and obedience. There has been some controversy among theologians with regard to the vision of God (visio Dei intuitiva, sensitiva, beatifica, comprehensiva). The question is whether the saints will hereafter behold God with the eyes of the mind, i.e. merely know him with the understanding.
But in the Scriptures God is always represented as a being invisible by the bodily eye (ἀόρατος), as, indeed, every spirit is. The texts of Scripture which speak of seeing God have been misunderstood: they signify, sometimes, the more distinct knowledge of God, as we speak of knowing by seeing, of seeing with the eyes of the mind (Joh_1:18; 1Jn_3:2; 1Jn_4:12; comp. 5:20; 1Ti_6:16); and Paul uses βλέπειν and γινώσκειν as synonymous (1Co_13:12-13; comp. 5:10). Again, they express the idea of felicity, the enjoyment of God's favor, the being thought worthy of his friendship, etc. Still more frequently are both of these meanings comprehended under the phrase to see God. The image is taken from Oriental princes, to see whose face and to be in whose presence was esteemed a great favor (Matthew 5, 8; Heb_7:14). “Without holiness, οὐδεὶς ὄψεται τὸν Κύριον.” The opposite of this is to be removed from God and from his face. But Christ is always represented as one who will be personally visible to us, and whose personal, familiar intercourse and guidance we shall enjoy. Herein Christ himself places a chief part of the joy of the saints (John 14, 17, etc.); and the apostles often describe the blessedness of the pious by the phrase being with Christ. To his guidance has God entrusted the human race, in heaven and on earth. And Paul says (2Co_4:6), we see “the brightness of the divine glory in the face of Christ;” he is “the visible representative of the invisible God” (Col_1:15).
According to the representations contained in the holy Scriptures, the saints will dwell together in the future world, and form, as- it were, a kingdom or state of God (Luke 16; Luk_20:38; Rom_8:10; Rev_7:9; Heb_12:22). They will there partake of a common felicity. Their enjoyment will doubtless be very much heightened by friendship, and by their confiding intercourse with each other. We must, however, separate all earthly imperfections from our conceptions of this heavenly society. But that we shall there recognize our former friends, and shall be again associated with them, was uniformly believed by all antiquity. And when we call to mind the affectionate manner in which Christ soothed his disciples by the assurance that they should hereafter see him again, should be with him, and enjoy personal intercourse and friendship with him in that place to which he was going (Joh_14:3; comp. 1Pe_1:8), we may gather just grounds for this belief. Paul, indeed, says expressly that we shall be with Christ, in company with our friends who died before us (αυα χαιᾷ αᾷρολ, 1Th_4:17); and this presupposes that we shall recognize them, and have intercourse with them, as with Christ himself. SEE ETERNAL LIFE.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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