Dear Ken,
Just briefly let me say that probably Genesis 1-11 is a prologue to the
rest of the Bible and meant to answer questions like: who is the true god?
How did we get in the state we find ourselves, etc., etc. Perhaps you
would find Walter Bruggemann's GENESIS in the Interpretation series
helpful. I recommend it. Not only that, CRC Publications has studies on
Genesis by people like John Timmer and Harvey Smit that give interesting
takes on the meaning of the early Genesis chapters.
Regards...
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Graham E. Morbey, Chaplain || Wilfrid Laurier University
tel. 519-884-1970 ext.2739 || Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5
fax 519-885-4865 || gmorbey@wlu.ca
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On Thu, 22 Feb 2001, Kenneth Piers wrote:
> I wrote:
>
> Why are the first 11 chapters of Genesis included in Holy Writ? In
> particular what should we understand about the scriptures recorded in
> Genesis 1, 2 and 3? Do the creation stories, and the fall story teach us
> anything at all? Presumably, (and I agree here) they do not teach us
> about the actual particular events that took place to get the universe
> to its present condition. That is, these stories do not record "literal
> history" in the sense that we could have captured it on a video camera.
> But what is the meaning of the repetitive "and God saw that it was good"
> recorded in Gen. 1? Was the creation really "good" in and of itself? - a
> goodness which did not, evidently, depend on the presence of humans -
> but continued to be good even after the creation (appearance) of humans?
> If so what was the quality of this goodness? Does it include some
> measure of harmony among creatures and between the Creator and His
> creation? Or is it sheer poppycock to think of the creation story in
> these terms?
>
> Howard replied:
>
> With a bit of playfulness I might suggest that the only way to get a
> definitive answer to your first and last questions, Ken, would be to go
> back
> in time & chat with the folks who made the decision to craft the
> "primeval
> history" literature of Genesis 1-11 and to include it in the Hebrew
> canon.
>
> More seriously, I would suggest looking at resources like Nahum
> Sarna's
> book, _Understanding Genesis_ (New York: Schocken Books, 1966). Sarna,
> a
> Jewish scholar, brings his familiarity with Ancient Near Eastern
> culture to
> bear on several of your questions.
>
> Now I reply:
>
> Thank-you Howard - I have just checked this book out of the library -
> it will no doubt be helpful. But my questions really were trying to get
> at something else - not so much how Gen. 1-11 got into the Bible in the
> first place - but why is it there today? What is the meaning of Gen 1-11
> (esp. Gen 1-3) for 21st century Christians? I know how "literalists"
> understand these texts since I was raised in an environment that assumed
> the literalism of these chapters. But since a literal reading of these
> verses seems quite out of kilter with nearly everything science has
> taught us about earth's history, I am interested in finding out if these
> texts carry any message at all for Christians today, and if so what is
> it?
> kpiers
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Feb 22 2001 - 11:03:28 EST