Does the Old Testament present a pagan cosmology?

 A recent question reminded me of this quote.  This is Kaiser on the question of cultural terminology in Toward an Exegetical Theology:

But it is clear that Scripture refused to fall into some cultural containments which might thereby reduce the content of the message. One good example of this resistance is the Bible’s rejection of the “three-tiered” universe model. To see in certain poetical portions of Scripture the pre-Copernican cosmological model which had a solid dome, flat earth, and an abyss beneath the earth (along with supporting pillars and slits in the dome for rain and stars!) is either an exegetical contrivance or a failure to spot the use of figurative language. 

The exegete must then ask when it is appropriate to adopt both the content and the form of the cultural item (p. 115).

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