Sunday May 10, 2015 | Greg Boyd
1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. 8 God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” 21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
27 So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
In this exploration of the Genesis 1 creation story and the young earth theory of creation, Greg presents three reasons why he believes that Genesis 1 was not intended to be taken as a literal account, but rather a narrative to express important truths about who the early Jews were and who their God was. Further, whether you believe in the young earth theory or evolution or some other view, the important thing that we all can agree on is simply the fact THAT God created the world and all life - not HOW he did so.
In 1925, the Scopes trial in Tennessee brought to light the existing split between those who view the Bible as a literal account of history, vs those who believe in evolution. Many evangelicals hold that you cannot believe in both science and the Bible at once. This has resulted in a belief for many that Christianity is antithetical to science as a whole. This is a problem because it causes many young people, who have respect for science, to leave religion behind.
Greg lays out three reasons why he beliefs that Genesis 1 is not meant to be taken literally. He presented these just as informational and hopefully persuasive, but not as a statement of what Woodland Hills believes or favors. WHC does not embrace any particular view on this subject.
Greg’s three primary reasons for believing that Genesis 1 is not intended to be read literally are as follows:
1) The word used in Genesis 1 for day in Hebrew is “yom,” but this word refers to an undefined period of time. It sometimes means season or an epoch. (see Prov 25:13)
Also, Genesis 1:14 describes 6 days during which God created various facets of the world. But the sun and moon were not created until the 4th day. They are the way in which we keep track of time, therefore it would be logically impossible to define a day before the sun existed. Gen 1:14 also states that part of the reason he created the sun and moon was to give signs to mark days and years, indicating that there was a need for a way to track the passage of time.
2) There are passages in the Bible that simply cannot be taken literally. John Calvin said that when God speaks to people, he does so in “baby talk.” This is consistent with many other places in the Bible where we see God meeting us where we are at, using the language and imagery that are within our vocabulary and understanding.
For example, 1 Samuel 2:8 states that the earth was held up by pillars; Psalms 104:3,5 that the heavens are stretched out like a tent; Job 37:18 that the sky is hard like a mirror and Genesis 1:7 indicates that a “vault” holds up the water in the sky, and Job 38:22 says that is where God keeps “storehouses” of rain and snow, and in Genesis 7:11 when it rains it’s because God opens the windows.
Clearly there were ways in which people thought the world worked which were not scientifically accurate, but God used them when speaking to us because that is simply where we were at, and he was using our vocabulary to make a larger point.
3) Creation stories for Ancient Near East cultures were not intended to answer scientific questions, but rather they were intended to answer larger questions about the identity of the community, such as Who are we? What is our purpose? Who do we worship? and Who can we trust to protect us?
There are several other creation stories in the neighboring cultures, the Sumarian account is in Enuma Elish and the Babylonian account is found in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
As we study these other stories, we see many similarities to the creation story in Genesis. For example they have a similar poetic structure, there is a flood narrative with an ark that is used to spare humanity, and a 7 day creation story, even with the sun and moon being created on the 4th day. It is no accident that these same features are found in the Jewish creation story as well.
Ancient Israel used similar story lines in its creation narrative. But they changed some key aspects in order to draw a contrast, to express unique points about their identity and what sets them apart from neighboring cultures of the time.
In Enuma Elish, a primarily good god Marduk was created by the god Ea to fight an evil god Tiamat for control of the world. Tiamat was the god of the abyss, and analogous to “the deep” of Genesis and other chaotic water symbolism in the Old Testament. From Tiamat’s remains, Marduk created humans to be his slaves. On a regular basis they believed he must be kept happy with sacrifices which were seen as “feeding” him, to help ensure protection during war.
For the ancient Jews, rather than there being a god of the sun and a god of the moon, the one true God simply spoke the sun and moon into being. And he was not created; he always was. And he does not create humans to be his slaves, but rather created them in his image, male and female with equal dignity. They did not “feed” him, but rather he provided food for them. These differences from the surrounding culture’s creation stories expressed profound differences in who the ancient Jews believed they were, and who they believed their God was.
The important thing to be taken away from this discussion is that the intent of the book of Genesis was not to explain scientific facts, but simply to declare a truth. We may disagree in our speculations about HOW God created the world, because the Bible was never intended to explain that. What matters is that as Christians we all agree THAT he did, and why he did, and that is enough to unite us.