Harlow: Creation in Genesis

Creation according to Genesis:

Literary genre, cultural context, theological truth

Daniel C. Harlow (2008) Christian Scholar’s Review 37(2):163-198. 

 

Genesis tells us the absolute truth about creation, but it does not tell us the complete truth.  It tells us the truth and nothing but the truth, but it does not tell us the whole truth. 

For example, the NT says that Christ was the agency of creation (Jn 1:1-4; Heb 1:1-4; Col 1:15-20), but this is not mentioned in Genesis.  In the same way, the book of nature reveals to us now things that were not included in Genesis.

Divine accommodation.  God condescends to reveal himself in ways that human beings can understand. 

Progressive revelation.  God’s self-disclosure is on-going and has unfolded in stages.  For example, God allowed OT writers to retain their belief in gods other than Yahweh and to write as if this were so and to even depict God as stating as much (Ex 12:12, 15:11; 20:2-3; Dt 32:8-9; Ps 82 89:6-10) before revealing later that He is in fact the one and only God (Is 43:10-11; 44:6; 46:1-13).  In this same way, the NT clarifies and completes the OT 

Who wrote the Pentateuch?  Some of it is attributed to Moses within the text, as the great lawgiver (Ex 17:4; 24:4; 34:27-28; Num 33:2; Dt 31:9, 19, 22).  It is impossible for, on the other hand, for the Pentateuch to have been delivered whole from Moses’ hand.  It is written in Classical Hebrew, which existed 600 years after Moses’ time.  Also, statements within the text point to a later redaction:  “at that time there were Canaanites in the land” (Gen 12:6; 13:7); “before any king reigned over the Israelites” (Gen 36:31).  The NT refers to Mosaic authorship as tradition and honoring (Mt 8:4; Mk 1:44; 10:3-4; 12:19).  There is a great variation in style and many repetitions and inconsistencies that point to multiple written and oral sources.  Probably came into final form during the exile or immediately after (550-450 BC).  God superintended the long, complex process of redaction.  It is no less authoritative for it.

The narrative artistry and theological sophistication of Genesis far outstrips anything in the literature of the ancient Near East.

God allows the OT writers to utilize familiar motifs and then baptize them for holy purposes:  Yam (sea), Leviathan, Rahab, Tanin (serpent/dragon).  e.g. Job 26:12-13; Ps 74:12-13; Ps. 89:9-10.  Therefore, the biblical writers valued the use of mythological language when talking about creation.  Gen 1-2 is no different. 

Physical anachronisms

The sky in Gen 1:6-8 is depicted as solid (dome or vault), which fits in with Near Eastern concepts of the time.  A flat earth (Is 40:22) as a disc, with a solid sky-dome (“hard as a molten mirror” Job 37:18; Prov 8:28) resting on mountains at the ends of the earth (Job 26:11).  The dome had windows cut into it (Gen 7:11; 8:2; Is 24:18; Mal 3:10) through which rain, snow, hail and wind come.  These have their own storehouses above the sky (Job 38:22; Ps 135:7; Jer 10:13; 51:16).  Perhaps the blue color of the sky was thought as evidence of massive amounts of water above the clear, glass-like sky-dome (Ps 148:4).  The Flood occurred when “all the fountains of the deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens, were opened” (Gen 7:11).  Thus, this is what the OT writers really believed the physical world was like; it wasn’t just poetic license.  If we are to insist that the Bible gives an accurate picture of the physical cosmos, then, to retain our integrity, we must also insist that the Earth is flat and that the sun, moon and stars move like light bulbs on tracks each day across a solid, glass-like sky dome, which separates us from a massive ocean of water hanging over the Earth.  

Demoting the gods

 It is clear that the “days” of Gen 1 are to be taken as normal 24-hr. days, and yet it defies a central fact of nature, namely, that there is light in the absence of the sun for the first three days.  For almost 2,000 years, interpreters have noticed this.  This is done to demote the sun from any divine status.  Secondly, creation proceeds in a hierarchical direction, with the least created first (the sun, not a god) and the most important last (man, the image of God).  This is to make a point and to be opposite of the other myths.  One agnostic man who went to the Peace Corps to work at a school at a Hindu temple came back after two years and read Genesis for the first time.  It was “electrifying”, because Gen 1 swept away all the things his polytheistic friends were worshipping one by one.  It seemed strange to think that anyone would seek another use for Genesis, such as reconciling it with science.

Gen 2

That Gen 1 and Gen 2 are thought to be entirely different accounts goes back to Philo, 2,000 years ago.  Gen 2:4 states:  “On the day God made the earth and heavens” rather than “When”.  The latter is translated inappropriately to provide a correlation to Gen 1.  So the Earth was created in one day.

Gen 2:5 states that the earth was so dry that there were no plants yet.  The plants were created after Adam then, unlike Gen 1.

The motifs and characters of Gen 2 were common in the stories of the ancient Near East.  They were appropriated but put together in an original and very different form to express something totally different.

Sin & Death

Adam and Eve were created mortal, otherwise the Tree of Life would be superfluous. 

Paul makes the connection between the entrance of death in Gen 3 with the banishment of death by Christ.  However, Paul’s main emphasis may be spiritual death:  the separation of Adam & Eve from God and our subsequent separation.  Paul’s  focus on Christ, then, is spiritual life. 

Goes into complex detail on how all the life spans of the Genesis figures are various permutations of 60 (with some 7’s thrown in), since Mesopotamian math was base 60.  Therefore, these people were nonhistorical. 

Just because writers of the OT and NT regarded Gen 1&2 as historical, does not mean that we have to.  We have a new revelation, which we can accept without rejecting the core truth of these Scriptures.

2Tim 3:15:  “Scripture is useful for teaching, reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”

This is the point of the scriptures [and it is one that way shy away from!]. 

Haarsma, D.B. and L. D. (2007).  Origins:  A reformed look at creation, design and evolution. 

Miller, K.R. (1999).  Finding Darwin’s God.

McGrath, A. (2005).  Dawkin’s God.