I cannot speak for others, but I myself appreciate your authoritative
response. I must make some observations and some questions. Am I to
understand that while God was able to create an entire universe, space-time,
stars, galaxies, planets, moons, as well as plants and life forms, he was
unable to influence the scripture in such a way as to insure that Genesis
could not be written as factual? Some might say that some, if not all, of
the Bible should not be taken literally. We must understand writers,
cultures, and languages. While I do agree with this in the area of trying to
understand the practices and beliefs of ancient people, how can one say that
God is powerful, but unable to control what goes in to the very Bible that
speaks his name? I was not aware that God lost his power after the creation.
Was he not able to part the Red Sea? Was he not able to send his only son to
our undeserving planet? Does the language and culture differences of our
ancestors somehow outweigh God's will? I do not doubt the accuracy of
anyone's information, until I have been shown otherwise. But, I will not
allow myself or my children to believe that God has no power to influence
his own words?
Respectfully, Don P
-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On
Behalf Of Allen Roy
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 12:23 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Re: What are the odds?....Or, a great and Mighty God
According to Wiseman's "Tablet Theory" as opposed to the JPED theory,
Genesis is composed of some 11 manuscripts edited by Moses into a single
manuscript that were originally written in the literary style used on clay
tablets from the eras during which the events of Genesis happened. That
literary style consisted of a Title, Body and Colophon. The colophon ending
stated that the preceding story in the body was the account of (or belonged
to, or written by) some person and usually included a date. The following
table gives a breakdown of Genesis using the known literary structure of
ancient clay tablets.
Tablet Number Ancestry
Narrative Body
Colophon
Owner/writer Date
1. 1:1-2:4 1:1 1:2-2:3
Creation 2:4a
Heaven & Earth 2:4b
2. 2:4c-5:2 2:4c-2:6 2:7-4:26
Creatin/Fall 5:1a Adam 5:1b-5:2
3. 5:3-6:9 5:3-5:32 6:1-8 6:9a Noah 6:9b
4. 6:10-10:1 6:10 6:11-9:29
Flood 10:1a
Ham,Shem,Japheth 10:1b
5. 10:2-11:10 10:2-32 11:1-9 11:10a Shem
6. 11:10b-11:27a 11:10b-25 11:26 11:27a Terrah
7. 11:27b-25:12 11:27b 11:27-25:11
Abraham 25:12 Ishmael
7a. 25:13-25:19a 25:13-18
Ishmael 25:19a Isaac
8. 25:19b-369 25:19b 25:20-35:29
Isaac 36:1 Esau
8a. 36:2-9 36:2-7
Esau Family 36:9 Esau 36:8
8b. 36:10-43
Esau Descendants 37:2a Jacob 37:1
9. 1:1-37:1 1:1-37:1 37:2- 50:21
Joseph Joseph?
50:22-26
Postscript Moses?
Within this interpretation of Genesis, the literary units include a list
of ancestors, the narrative body, and the colophon. In the case of the
first "tablet," gives then ancestry of the universe for the Creation Week
narrative. It ends with whose history it is of (the heavens and the earth)
and dates it to "when God made heaven and earth) The second "tablet" give
the history of Adam.
Chances are that these originated as oral stories which were later written
down in the literary style of the times. Just when the switch from oral to
written occurred is not evident in the stories. However, it is likely that
Moses simply edited these several documents into one document still keeping
the literary structure of the times.
So who wrote "In the beginning God. ...
Who knows. The story probably began as what God told Adam and Eve. They
passed on the story, along with their own to the following generations.
Eventually the stories were written down and eventually ended up in the
Torah and the Bible.
Allen
From: Jim Eisele <jeisele@starpower.net>>
> Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
> What are the odds that this was not "written" by God?
> I would like to start the bidding at 1 in 300.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Mar 21 2002 - 15:04:54 EST