There is more than one theory floating around to explain this word “firmament” in the bible in some way other than a hard dome. There is the “ice canopy” theory by Kent Hovind, and more commonly the firmament is merely a reference to the sky or our “atmos-sphere” around the so-called globe. But even that term shows its bias with the words “atmos” (greek for vapor) and “sphere” as a secondary descriptor. We do have vapor, but the latter is an inference originating from the 17th century.
Here is the Strong’s definition of the Hebrew word for Firmament…
7549. raqia
Strong’s Concordance
raqia: an extended surface, expanse
Original Word: רָקִ֫יעַ
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: raqia
Phonetic Spelling: (rah-kee’-ah)
Short Definition: expanse
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon: “extended surface” or “solid expanse”
Englishman’s Hebrew Concordance:
Gen 1:6-8,14-15,17,20
Psalm 19:1
Psalm 150:1
Ezekiel 1:22-23,25-26
Ezekiel 10:1
Daniel 12:3
Also see Job 37:18 which uses a different Hebrew word than “firmament” but demonstrates the understanding that the sky is solid.
If we accept the bible at it’s word (without mention of universe or planets) but still arrive at a reality that parrots the result of a “big bang”, there is a second witness to consider in the book of Enoch as explained by Rob Skiba on www.testingtheglobe.com.