So in Genesis, you believe the word heaven (הַשָּׁמַיִם) refers to the sky? To me that interpretation makes the most sense. The Hebrew word translated as "heaven" is linked with the concept of the sea/ocean, since ancient peoples routinely thought the sky held water (because of the blue colour).
Well, yes. The natural heavens of our atmosphere are included in the greater definition of "heaven." I'll admit the term is vague as appears in Genesis.
(Shamayim) Heaven can mean:
The sky and atmosphere of earth.
The spiritual dominion of the throne of God.
The immediate visible heavens, including the sun, moon, solar system planets, and near stars.
The holistic expanse of the universe --all of empirical reality on the physical plain --period.
The holistic expanse of all creation, on every dimension and plane. "spirit realm", physical realm, and if there be anything else...
So, again. It is vague, and context can only go so far in this particular case.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
This says in the beginning God created the heavens --but doesn't elaborate on the chronological timing between the "heavens" (If one assumes the extreme level of the definition) and the formation of the earth itself, which by logic would have to be made after the "space" in which it is both contained and fixed to begin with. The Bible does say explicitly that in the beginning the Earth was void and without form. There is no definitive insight as to whether or not this formless void was left to itself for an unknown duration of time, or if that was just a passing detail in the first few moments. It would seem superfluous to make mention of the formless void if it was only so for less than a 24 hour day in the initial moments of creation. The Bible also explicitly states that the sun and the moon were formed simultaneously with the earth.
Also, it is worthy to note that in the beginning, there was a light present before the sun itself:
"And God said, let there be light. And it was. And He saw that it was good."
The sun is made after the light. When you consider the notion of creation, the things contained in the Bible which defy the "natural order" such as walking on water, or burning bushes which do not consume, rods turning into serpents, the parting of the sea... Talking donkeys, virgin births, Resurrections and the sun staying still for Joshua... These things are by definition miracles. Creation itself is a "miracle" If we suppose for hypothetical purposes that God has the power to create the universe without worrying about the 6,000 years ago detail, then we should not have any problem believing he can set the elements in motion without "waiting around"...
It's like... Have you ever bought a house phone before? You know how you have to plug it in and let it charge for 28942389473 hours before you are supposed to use it for the first time? That is like the argument in which you say that if the stars are X million light years away, we should not have been able to see them yet if in fact they were created within the last 6,000 years.
But, what if God set everything in active motion? What if he had everything preset.. pre-charged? Is there any basis for this or am I really getting desperate here?
The Earth itself, under a 6 day, 6,000 year old creation would by logic have been pre-aged and created in a "mature" state. How else could it host life? The same logic applies to the cosmos. In the Bible, when God created Adam, and later Eve... Adam and Eve were never in the womb. They were never infants. They were never weened. They were never raised from childhood. They were created --not "born" in a pre-aged mature state.
To my knowledge, we have never actually conclusively observed a star being born. If a star HAS been born in the history of earth, fantastic. That star is being born, and it's natural light will take X light years to reach us. The star was
born The "booster pack" start-up universe --none of the heavenly hosts: the planets, stars, moon, debris... None of it was "born" It was "created" in an advanced state. Things that have come into existence since the creation are expansion. They are not of the origin.
Touching on what you mentioned about the ancients believing the sky was a sort of floating sea.... The Genesis account of creation speaks of a "firmament" in the midst of the heavens. This firmament is said to be a dome-like concentration of water. The Bible says that the firmament was removed when God flooded the earth in the days of Noah. I believe waters from that flood also came from the fountains of the deep" in addition to the collapse of the firmament. Consequently, this is one of the main question marks one has when considering the reliability of radiometric dating techniques, because the existence of such a firmament would render the paradigm of Uniformitarianism useless in this debate. The presence of such a firmament would surely affect the C-14 levels in the pre-flood atmosphere for instance; further complicating the fact that under the hypothesis-testing of a 6,000 year old world by means of radiometric dating would be skewed because a 6,000 year old world is simply not old enough to reach the state of equilibrium, much less with the firmament complications... possibly even ozone issues. (I admit I am not sure how the state of the ozone might affect radiometrics if at all)
I sincerely hope this answers you sufficiently.
)