The Waters Above the Firmament: How Genesis and Science Align on Earth’s Early Creation

Nathan asks: "Hello. We know there isn’t an ocean of water above the heavens, so what does the Torah mean when it speaks of the ‘upper waters’? Is there a scientific explanation for this?"

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Hello Nathan, and thank you for your question.

The Torah is composed of four levels of interpretation: pshat (simple meaning), remez (hint), drush (homiletic), and sod (secret). Our sages taught that the work of Creation is hidden from us, containing many deep mysteries known only to a select few. However, I will offer you the pshat — the straightforward meaning of the verse “the waters above the firmament” as explained by the classical commentators, and we will see how it aligns with our scientific understanding.

The Earth in Its Earliest State

The Torah first describes the early state of the world: “And the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2).

The words tohu and bohu teach that the earth was initially empty and desolate, without any form of life, animals, or plants. This does not imply chaos or disorder, as is commonly thought, but rather desolation and emptiness, as Rashi explains. The root meaning is “to wonder” (toheh) and “to gaze vacantly” (boheh), as if describing a person wandering in a barren wasteland, not knowing where to turn, gazing into empty space.

Other verses confirm this meaning: “I looked at the earth, and behold it was unformed and void… the whole land shall be a desolation” (Jeremiah 4:23), “Do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit nor deliver, for they are emptiness” (Samuel I 12:21), and “He led them through a wasteland without a path” (Psalms 107:40).

The phrase “darkness upon the face of the deep” indicates that the early Earth was covered by a vast ocean, with no continents or atmosphere, and existing in total darkness in the emptiness of space. The Torah tells us of a deep abyss of water covering the primordial Earth, as the verse ends: “over the face of the waters.” The Hebrew tehom refers specifically to a deep body of water: “The depths covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone” (Exodus 15:5).

The Formation of the Firmament

Next we read: “And God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate between waters and waters.’ And God made the firmament, and He separated between the waters that were under the firmament and the waters that were above the firmament, and it was so. And God called the firmament ‘heavens’” (Genesis 1:6–8).

In biblical Hebrew, rakia means an expanse or empty space, what Ibn Ezra calls “air.” In modern terms, this would be the atmosphere. Genesis 1:2 described the earth as submerged under a global ocean, with the land deep beneath the water’s surface. To allow continents to appear, it was necessary both to remove an immense quantity of water from Earth and to create a new atmosphere.

Rashi explains the creation of the firmament this way: “He solidified the firmament, for although the heavens were created on the first day, they were still moist.”

In verse 6 we read about separating “the waters above the firmament.” In simple terms, this could be understood as God evaporating enormous amounts of water into space. We now know that water released beyond the atmosphere freezes into ice and drifts through space. These verses may imply that God sent a vast volume of water beyond Earth’s atmosphere, where it likely froze into ice masses — what science calls comets, and drifted in space.

Our sages say God preserved these waters beyond the atmosphere so they would not scatter into deep space: “Rav said: They were moist on the first day, and on the second day they froze” (Bereishit Rabbah 1:2). Rabbi Tanchuma adds: “Had it been written ‘upon the firmament,’ I would have thought the waters rested physically upon it, but when it says ‘above the firmament,’ it means the upper waters are suspended by God’s word.”

Malbim explains that before the firmament was made, the waters were in vapor form mixed with air — many times their eventual condensed volume, and extended to a height equal to the distance from the earth to the clouds. As the Midrash says: “The space between the earth and the firmament is equal to the space between the firmament and the upper waters.”

Scientific Parallels and Other Worlds

The account of the Flood may also hint at massive rainfall originating from beyond the atmosphere: “The windows of the heavens were opened…” (Genesis 7:11).

Today we know of a planet with a somewhat similar feature. Saturn is surrounded by giant rings made of countless small ice particles. One could say that Saturn has “waters above the firmament.” The verses may suggest that Earth too once had massive ice rings.

Although our planet no longer has such rings, it is possible that after the Flood, the ice surrounding Earth evaporated back into space, drifting away as comets. Today, thousands of large comets, mostly composed of ice, float within our solar system. Over 5,200 periodic comets have been observed so far. Perhaps some of them were once part of the abyss that covered Earth at its beginning.

Two-Stage Formation of the Land

Even after the firmament was made, the primeval land remained underwater. But now it was not under a deep abyss; it only required drainage into oceans for dry land to appear: “And God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered to one place, and let the dry land appear,’ and it was so” (Genesis 1:9).

The atmosphere was now formed, but the land only emerged on the third day. Since the land was still submerged and the work incomplete, the phrase “it was good” is not mentioned on the second day. Instead, it appears twice on the third day (Rashi on verse 6).

Revealing the land happened in two stages: first, the evaporation of much of the water into space with the creation of the atmosphere, and second, the gathering of the remaining waters into oceans to expose the land. The Genesis creation account matches modern scientific knowledge with remarkable precision, as seen in the plain meaning of the verses and the explanations of our commentators.