Heaven

From BibleEncyclopedia.Net

hev´'n:

(1) Definitions., The phrase “heaven and earth” is used to indicate the whole universe (Gen_1:1; Jer_23:24; Act_17:24). According to the Jewish notion there were three heavens,

(a) The firmament, as “fowls of the heaven” (Gen_2:19; Gen_7:3, Gen_7:23; Psa_8:8, etc.), “the eagles of heaven” (Lam_4:19), etc.

(b) The starry heavens (Deu_17:3; Jer_8:2; Mat_24:29).

(c) “The heaven of heavens,” or “the third heaven” (Deu_10:14; 1Ki_8:27; Psa_115:16; Psa_148:4; 2Co_12:2).

(2) Meaning of words in the original,

(a) The usual Hebrew word for “heavens” is shamayim, a plural form meaning “heights,” “elevations” (Gen_1:1; Gen_2:1).

(b) The Hebrew word marom is also used (Psa_68:18; Psa_93:4; Psa_102:19, etc.) as equivalent to shamayim, “high places,” “heights.”

(c) Heb. galgal, literally a “wheel,” is rendered “heaven” in Psa_77:18 (R.V., “whirlwind”).

(d) Heb. shahak, rendered “sky” (Deu_33:26; Job_37:18; Psa_18:11), plural “clouds” (Job_35:5; Job_36:28; Psa_68:34, marg. “heavens”), means probably the firmament.

(e) Heb. rakia is closely connected with (d), and is rendered “firmamentum” in the Vulgate, whence our “firmament” (Gen_1:6; Deu_33:26, etc.), regarded as a solid expanse.

(3) Metaphorical meaning of term. Isa_14:13, Isa_14:14; “doors of heaven” (Psa_78:23); heaven “shut” (1Ki_8:35); “opened” (Eze_1:1). (See 1Ch_21:16.)

(4) Spiritual meaning. The place of the everlasting blessedness of the righteous; the abode of departed spirits.

(a) Christ calls it his “Father's house” (Joh_14:2).

(b) It is called “paradise” (Luk_23:43; 2Co_12:4; Rev_2:7).

(c) “The heavenly Jerusalem” (Gal_4:26; Heb_12:22; Rev_3:12).

(d) The “kingdom of heaven” (Mat_25:1; Jam_2:5).

(e) The “eternal kingdom” (2Pe_1:11).

(f) The “eternal inheritance” (1Pe_1:4; Heb_9:15).

(g) The “better country” (Heb_11:14, Heb_11:16).

(h) The blessed are said to “sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” and to be “in Abraham's bosom” (Luk_16:22; Mat_8:11); to “reign with Christ” (2Ti_2:12); and to enjoy “rest” (Heb_4:10, Heb_4:11).

In heaven the blessedness of the righteous consists in the possession of “life everlasting,” “an eternal weight of glory” (2Co_4:17), an exemption from all sufferings forever, a deliverance from all evils (2Co_5:1, 2Co_5:2) and from the society of the wicked (2Ti_4:18), bliss without termination, the “fulness of joy” for ever (Luk_20:36; 2Co_4:16, 2Co_4:18; 1Pe_1:4; 1Pe_5:10; 1Jo_3:2). The believer's heaven is not only a state of everlasting blessedness, but also a “place”, a place “prepared” for them (Joh_14:2).

See Astronomy.