The Genesis of Everything

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) Sometimes I think we complicate things by focusing on the wrong things when it comes to reading the rest of Genesis 1. I don’t think the purpose of Genesis 1 is to describe the mechanics of how God created the heavens and the earth. God could have created in 6 literal 24 hour days, but I think to make that the centre of my gospel is to miss the point of Genesis 1 and the point of the gospel! I think that’s reading Genesis contrary to its historical context.

I recently read a brilliant paper by John Dickson, The Genesis of Everything: An historical account of the Bible’s opening chapter, where he deals with this very issue.

Check out the Abstract:

The paper seeks to plot a path through the controversy surrounding the Bible’s opening chapter by examining Genesis 1 in historical context. The author assumes and endorses no particular view of human origins but argues for a literal interpretation of the text, as opposed to what may be called ‘literalistic’. The former reading gives due weight to both the literary genre of Genesis 1 and the cultural milieu of the original writer, whereas the latter gives sufficient attention to neither.

Various pre-scientific interpretations of Genesis 1 are described, including those of the first century Jewish intellectual Philo and the great Christian theologian Augustine. In particular, comparisons are drawn with the Babylonian creation epic, Enuma Elish, and it is suggested that Genesis 1 is a piece of ‘subversive theology’, making significant theological points in the light of contemporaneous creation ideas. The questions raised (and answered) by the Bible’s opening chapter concern the nature of the Creator, the value of creation and the place of humanity within the creational scheme. Modern questions concerning the mechanics and chronology of creation may not be appropriately put to the ancient text.

Read the whole thing here.