Creation and Commission: Genesis 1 to 3 – Translation and Commentary

1:8f) The sky below the clouds is the first “Heaven.”   It is nearest to our planet and is indeed essentially part of the Earth.   The “Second Heaven” is the astronomical Tri- Universe (to the exclusion of our Earth), Genesis 1:1c,14-16.   The “Third Heaven” is the dwelling place of the good angels and the dead-in-Christ, in the very presence of God (Genesis 1:1c cf. Second Corinthians 12:2).   Needless to say, although inter-connected, all three of these Heavens are time-bound creatures.   None of them existed prior to Genesis 1:1.   Indeed, all these triune Heavens – in God’s one and only created ‘Tri- Universe’ – constitute yet one more “created trinity” ( cf. Genesis 1:1d-f,4d,6b,26c).