HEAVEN, HEAVENS. Definihons and Dis tinctions. — The ancient Hebrews, for want of a single term like the Rorrlizr and the Mundus of the Greeks and the Latins, used the phrase heaven and earth (as in Gen. i. t ; Jer. 24 ; and Acts xvii. 24, where H. ana' E.' the world and all things therein') to indicate the universe, or (as Barrow, Sermons 07Z the Creed, works [Oxford Ed.], vol. iv. p. 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' (comp. Pearson on the Creed, who, on art. i. (` Maker of H. and E.') adduces the Rabbinical names of a triple division of the universe, making the sea, 0', distinct from the oficoupipn. Compare also the Nicene Creed, where another division occurs of the uni verse into things visible and invisible.') Deducting from this aggregate the idea expressed by earth' [EARTH ; GEOGRAPHY], we get a residue of signi fication which exactly embraces heaven.' Barrow (1. c.) well defines it as 'all the superior region en compassing the globe of the earth, and from it on all sides extended to a distancc 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. i. i6).' The same writer (p. 558, with whom comp. Grotius and Drusius on 2 Cor. xii. 2) ascribes to the Jews the notion that there are three heavens ;* Ctelunt Yiubjfrrum, or the firmament ; Crlum astriferum, the starry heavens ; Callon angelifirum, or the heaven of heavens,' where the angels residc, the third heaven' of St. Paul. This same notion prevails in the Fathers. Thus St. Gregory of Nyssa (Hea-aem . tom. i. p. 42) describes the first of these heavens as the lzmited space of the denser air (7-Ca, 8pov Tofi raxunepeo-repou cilpos), within which range the clouds, the winds, and the birds ; the second is the region in which wana'er the planets and the stars Vv c`, arNavijral. TC.)1, CGO-TepWP Staroperioprai.), hence aptly called by Hesychius narno-rptcravov-Miroy, locum stellifemm ; while the third is the very summit of the visible crea tion (7-1) ozip cinpbrarov TOO aio-n-roi3 xbal.tou), St. Paul's third heaven, h1gher than Me aerial and stellar world, cognisable [not by the eye but] by the mind alone (dy GrTao-ikap Kal 060-EL 7EVNIEVOS), which Damascene calls the heaven of heavens, the prime heaven beyond all others (oUpavas roi) 06pavoii, rp&ros apap6s, Orthoa'. Fla'. lib. ii. c. vi. p. 83) ; or, according to St. Basil (In Yesaiam, visione tom.i. p. 813), the throne of God (9-pbyos 0€00), and to Justin Martyr (Quasi'. et Resp. ad Gracos, ad ult. Quaut. p. 236), the house and throne of God (olnos na2p6vos roils Elea).
Scripture Passages arranged according to these Distinctions.—This division of the celestial regions is very convenient and quite Biblical. I. Under the first head [ccelum nubiferum] the following phrases naturally fall—(a) Fowl,' or fowls of the heaven, of the air ;' see Gen. ii. ; vii. 3, 23 ; ix. 2 ; Dent. iv. 17 ; xxviii. 26 ; t Kings xxi. 24 ; Job xii. 7 ; XXViii. 21 ; XXV,. I I ; Ps. viii. 8 ; lxxix. 2 ; CiY. 12 ; Jer. vii. 33 et passim ; Ezek. xxix. 5 et passim ; Dan. ii. 3S ; Hos. ii. 18 ; iv. 3 ; vii. 12 ; Zeph. 3 ; Mark iv. 3 (Ta 'TEMP& Ter apavoi3) ; Luke viii. 5 ; ix. 58 ; xiii. 19 ; Acts X. 12 ; Xi. 6—in all which passages the same original words in the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek Scrip tures [1:7'.= inipayot] are with equal propriety rendered indifferently air' and heaven'—simi larly, we read of 'the path of the eagle in the air,' Prov. xxx. 19 ; of the eagles of heaven,' Lam. iv. 19 ; of the stork of the heaven,' Jer.
viii. 7 ; and of birds of heaven' in general, Eccl.
x. 2o; Jer. iv. 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. xxvii. 28, 39 ; Dent. xxidii. 28 ; Dan. iv. 15 et passim ; Hag. i. ; Zech. viii. 12 : (0 The clouds of heaven,' Kings xviii. 45 ; Ps. cidvii. 8 ; Dan vii. 13 ; Matt xxiv. 30 ; xxvi. 64; Mark xiv. 62 : (d) The frost of heaven, Job XXXViii. 29 : (e) The winds- of heaven, I Kings xviii. 55 ; Ps. lxxviii. 26 ; Dan. viii. 8 ; xi. 4 ; Zech. ii. 6; vi. 5 [see margin] ;. Matt. xxiv. 31 ; Mark xiii. 27: (f) The rain of heaven, Gen. viii. 2; Dent xi ; xxviii. 12 ; Jer. X1V. 22; Acts xiv. [oboala-ev beroos] ; James v. 18 ; Rev. xviii. 6 : (g) Lightning, with thunder, Job xxxvii. 3, 4 ; Luke xvii. 24. II. (Ccelum astriferum). The vast spaces of which astronomy takes cognizance are frequently referied to : ex. gr. (a) in the phrase, host of heaven,' in Dent. xvii. 3 ; Jer. Ail. 2; Matt. xxiv. 29 plod/Lees obpaveZw]; a sense which is obviously not to be confounded with another signification of the same phmse, as in Luke ii. x3 [ANGELs] (b) Lights of heaven, Gen. i. 14, 15, 16 ; Ezek. xxxii. 8 : (c) Stars of heaven, Gen. xxii. 17 ; xxvi. 4 ; Exod. =di. 13 • Dent. i. ; x. 22 ; XXVIII. 62 ; Judg. V. 20; deli ix. 23 ; Is. xiii. to ; Nahum iii. 16 ; Heb. xi. 12.* III. (Ccelum angeliferum). 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 our selves with indicating one or two of the most ob vious : (a) The heaven of heavens Dent. x. 14 ; Kings viii. 27 ; 2 Chl'00. ii. 6, t'8 ; Neh. ix. 6 ; Ps. cxv. 16 ; cxlviii. 4 : (b) The third heavens, 2 Con xii. 2 : (c) The high and lofty[place], Is. xlvii. 15 : (d) 771e highest, Matt. xxi. 9 ; Mark xi. iit); Luke ii. 14, compared with Ps. mdviii. r. This heavenly sublimity was graciously brought down to Jewish apprehensions in the sacred symbol of their Tabernacle and Temple, which they reverenced (especially in the adytunt of the Holy of Holies') as the place where God's honour dwelt ' (Ps. xxvi. 8), and amidst the sculptured types of His celestial retinue, in the cherubim of the mercy-seat (2 Kings xix. 15 ; Ps. lxxx. ; Is. xxxvii. 16).f Meaning of the terms used in the Original. 1. The by far most frequent designation of Heaven in the Hebrew Scriptures is DIM, which the older • - • lexicographers [see Cocceius, Lex. s. v.] regarded as the dual, but which Gesenius and Fiirst have restored to tbe dignity, which St Jerome gave it, of the plural of an obsolete noun, '1]& as (vil ptur. of 4i.3 and C!/: from 40). According to these recent scholars the idea expressed by the word is height, elevation (Gesenius, Thes. p. 1453 ; Fdrst, Hebr. Wort. ii. 467). In this respect of its essen tial meaning it resembles the Greek obpavbs [from the radical op, denoting height]; Pott, Etymol. Forsch. i. 123, ed. x. Pott's rendering of, this root dp, 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 Bos worth 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 heofim or heofen, in the sense of heaven. And although the primary notion of the Latin athim (akin to KoIXos and our ho//ow) is the less sublime one of a covered or vaulted space, yet the loftier sense of elevation has prevailed, both in the original (see Mite and Ridclle, s. v. Coelum) and in the derived languages (comp. French ciel, and the English word ceiling).