Edward D. Andrews — EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored ninety-two books. Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).

Genesis 1:6-8 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

⁶And God went on to say, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let there be a separation between the waters and the waters.” ⁷And God went on to make the expanse, and make a separation between the waters, which were under the expanse and between the waters, which were above the expanse: and it came to be so. ⁸And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

You will notice that on the second creative “day” or period, when the expanse (or sky, the atmosphere above the earth), was formed, there were waters that were under the expanse and waters that were above the expanse. Therefore, there was a body of water above the sky, our atmosphere and water under our sky on the earth.

Genesis 6:17 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

¹⁷Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of waters [“the heavenly ocean” (Heb., hammabbul)] upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.

Genesis 7:11 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the windows of heaven were opened.

There was a “surging waters; water canopy” (Heb., tehohm), a “heavenly ocean” (Heb., hammabbul),[1] above the atmosphere. This water fell to the earth in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month.

^[1] William Lee Holladay, Ludwig Köhler and Ludwig Köhler, A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. (Leiden: Brill, 1971), 181.