The heavens in Mark 13:27 and Deuteronomy 30:4

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"And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven." - Mark 13:27

"If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee" - Deuteronomy 30:4

So, does the word "heaven" in these passages refer to lands on the earth that are distant, the expanse of space, or Heaven? Discuss.

I am going to go with obvious and coolest answer we will have space travel before the coming of the messiah.

Well, we already have space travel, just not very far in terms of manned spaceflight yet, but I think you mean manned interplanetary/interstellar more likely than not. In atheistic philosophy I suppose that would certainly be true, barring a random asteroid smacking our planet and turning it into molten jelly before we decide to get up and go anywhere and do something more than take samples and plant flags and leave. As a Christian though I do hope we spread out into space prior to Christ's return, just because that would be simply awesome.

No. You have a bad translation from the Hebrew. Bektzey Ha'shamayim translates "from the uttermost parts of the world". A bit of Hebrew idiom there. Which shows that literal translations are not necessarily good translations. In fact they rarely are. Better to read chap 30 of D'varim carefully to get the context.

ruveyn

The rest of the context in Deuteronomy 30 that is relevant to this would be the two surrounding verses,

"That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers."
[Deuteronomy 30:3-5]

Which can be related to return from the Babylonian Exile as well as the rebirth of Israel in modern times. It would fit with it being only being dispersed across the distant lands of this singular planet. However, could it not also be considered a more general promise or is the idiom so strict that Ha'shamayim must mean only the planet Earth? Also, although the New Testament is far from being considered canonical in Rabbinic Judaism, the verses in Mark, although the copies we have are in Greek, would seem to repeat the same notion twice if the term "heaven" is to be considered equivalent to "earth".

The gospels have not standing whatsoever in Jewish thinking. The Greek was lifted from the LXX which was the translation from Hebrew to Greek sponsored by Philo in Alexandria. That is where the Christian gospels got their "virgin birth" A bad translation from the Hebrew in Is. 7:14

ruveyn

May be, however Mark 13:27 is not merely a quotation of the Septuagint. In context it is Jesus talking about the last days rather than merely a promise of return from exile. Now, certainly one could consider it to be derived from Deuteronomy 30:4, but even still the distinction made in Mark 13:27 between "the uttermost part of earth" and "the uttermost part of heaven" would be significant in its own interpretation even if the word Ha'shamayim is to actually mean Earth rather than the heavens in Deuteronomy 30:4.

Beektzay Ha'shamayim means from the farthest places (the limits of the heavens, over the horizon). Back in those days that meant the ends of the earth.

ruveyn

It is hard to say but I like both the old and new testament.

Not true. It translates to the higher ether. Keet's translation is correct.

http://concordances.org/hebrew/8064.htm