"What does Ex. 20:11 mean in your world?
Rasmussen replied:
"Exodus 20:11
"For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and
all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the
LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
"Well I my interpretation is that it took our Lord six literal days to
laydown the design of this universe and the complex laws that would
govern His creative power/energ.
Comment:
I have always wondered about Exodus 20:11. I believe that it, at
least, establishes that Moses knew the story that is Genesis 1.
I think that it also shows that Moses interpreted the Genesis 1
account literally and used that interpretation to supported
moral (what we ought to do) and anagogical (where we ought
to proceed) deductions.
Stanley Jaki came out with a book on Genesis 1 - saying that the
metaphorical interpretation (for Israelites at the time of Moses)
was the origin of the 'tent of the heavens and earth'.
The OT itself never mentions this metaphorical interpretation
of the Creation Story explicitly. Why doesn't it?
The NT, the Gospel of John especially, proposes right off a
metaphorical interpreation of Genesis 1. 'In the beginning was
the Word..' It also takes literal meaning from that metaphor.
'and the Word dwelt among us'. Why does Christianity express
metaphorical, even literalized metaphorical meaning, right out
of the starting gate?
Finally, does the fact that the gospels draw metaphorical
meaning from Genesis 1 mean that we (today) ought to read Exodus
20:11 from a double view of both literal and metaphorical
meaning?
Ray