Universe rather than a water canopy around the Earth.2 However, this interpretation is difficult to defend because the biblical creation account speaks only about the visible world. In his Genesis commentary, John Calvin argues that the waters above the firmament cannot refer to water around the edge of the Universe for the following reasons: ‘For, to my mind, this is a certain principle, that nothing is here treated of but the visible form of the world … Whence I conclude, that the waters here meant