It is my belief that when we read Genesis 1 as the ancient piece of literature that it is, we will find new understanding of the passage that will result in a clearer understanding of how the initial audience would have heard it. In the process, we will also find that many of the perceived conflicts with modern science will be able to be resolved. I have explored this in a recent book titled The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (IVP) and the technical aspects of ancient Near Eastern literature and the Hebrew text will be explored in greater depth in a forthcoming monograph, Genesis One As Ancient Cosmology (Eisenbrauns).
You can read the essay here:
The Bible and Interpretation.
As for me, I’m going to here Walton lecture tonight. I’ll blog about it when I can.
Tags: biblical interpretation, genesis one, John Walton
You can find the entire article here:
Genesis, in the first chapter of the Old Testament, is the biblical story of the creation of Earth and life and tells the story in the form of a seven-day period. This essay is not about the seven days (here we will assume that the “days” are allegorical); this is about what Genesis says happened on each of those seven days of creation.
He goes on to aligns science and religion in creative ways.
Tags: genesis one, religion, science
Thought this might be interesting given conversations of late (here and here):
They call it potbelly hill, after the soft, round contour of this final lookout in southeastern Turkey. To the north are forested mountains. East of the hill lies the biblical plain of Harran, and to the south is the Syrian border, visible 20 miles away, pointing toward the ancient lands of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, the region that gave rise to human civilization. And under our feet, according to archeologist Klaus Schmidt, are the stones that mark the spot—the exact spot—where humans began that ascent.
Continue reading “Archeological Dig Reshaping Human History”
Tags: archeology
In light of my recent attempt to examine interpretations of Genesis One in Second Temple Judaism, I thought that I would move on to how the account was received among early Christian writers. I did not find, in my opinion, enough to hold my interest, but I did find Augustine’s take interesting. In reviewing one part of Augustine with Jeremy, he reminded that Augustine’s Hebrew was not the best, to say the least. Of course, he does sound a bit like Philo at one point, but that could be chalked up to Augustine’s use of neo-Platonism instead which would have led him to nearly plagiarize the Hellenize-Jew.
Continue reading “Augustine on Genesis One”
Tags: creation, genesis one
I was revisiting a few of my older posts, trying to clean up a few things, and came across this post which links here:
The creation of the Universe is described in order to establish that the Universe is a lawful, harmonious product of the will of a transcendent God who put it into motion.
The creation of Man is explored in order to enlighten us as to the peculiarities of the human condition – being a part of the natural world yet capable of transcending our natural drives, possessing biological instincts as well as an intellect, struggling both with our environments and within ourselves. Unlike the elegance and harmony reflected in the cosmos, the human realm is messily complicated, and the challenges that face Man, with his unique combination of heavenly and earthly characteristics, are daunting.
Tags: creation, creation account, genesis one, judaism, torah
First, I reckon you have to watch the video here, but Biologos makes an excellent point:
John Walton offers some important reminders in this video with regard to how we should approach a reading of the book of Genesis. Walton says that first and foremost, we have to approach Genesis for what it is, which is an ancient text. While it is a text that is written for us—in the sense that it was written for all people in all times and places—it was not written to us. That is, it was not written in our language or with our culture in mind.
And on the same token, you might want to check out this post, which begins:
This is an essential catholic and evangelical truth: the Word of God does not speak of something the way, for example, I may speak of something I know or have an opinion about. Scripture is God speaking. When Scripture speaks, we hear the voice of God.
Tags: genesis one, John Walton
