The ancient people of the Levant — present day Syria, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories — believed their gods lived on a massive mountain in the north. The Canaanites called it Mount Zaphon, and to them it represented the heavens.
A thousand years later, the author of Job referred to the Canaanite mountain as a way to explain God’s creation of the cosmos. "He stretches out Zaphon over the void," Job explains, "and hangs the earth upon nothing."
Job’s image often ran through the mind of Col. Jeffrey Williams as he looked down on Earth during two missions on the International Space Station. "Any space traveler who has seen the Earth from orbit completely understands" Job’s words, Williams writes in his new book of photographs, "The Work of His Hands: A View of God’s Creation from Space."
Read more of this story.