Glenn Morton wrote:
> As an excersize in creativity and just for fun (not for
> seriousness), Shuan prsented the following challenge:>>>Yet God my
> King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
> 13Thou didst divide the sea by thy might; thou didst break the heads
> of the dragons on the waters. 14Thou didst crush the heads of
> Leviathan, thou didst give him as food for the creatures of the
> wilderness. 15Thou didst cleave open springs and brooks; thou didst
> dry up ever-flowing streams. 16Thine is the day, thine also the night;
> thou hast established the luminaries and the sun. 17Thou hast fixed
> all the bounds of the earth; thou hast made summer and winter. (Psalms
> 74:12-17)I have a feeling that there will be few calls for a
> concordist interpretation of this passage! <<<Well lets see, god did
> divide the sea with continental drift (many times) and he did break
> the head of the reptilian dragons of the Cretaceous era by dropping
> the Chicxulub meteor onto their heads which of course gave them (their
> carcasses) as food for the few survivors. The meteor also 'cleaved
> open' a big hole allowing groundwaters to escape in the form of
> springs. Most of us do believe that God created the luminaries and
> the sun as well as summer and winter. Voila!! a concordistic
> interpretation!!! :-)
I gave a paper on these "Chaos struggle" passages at the 2000
ASA meeting. (Ps.89:8-13, Job 26:12-13 & Is.51:9-10 also have to be
considered.) I certainly appreciate the humor of Glenn's concordist
interpretation but of course, joking aside, no one in his/her right mind
would insist that these passages have to interpreted historically,
"concordized" with science &c - which gives the lie to the claim that
other passages dealing with creation _must_ be so interpreted.
The average churchgoer is either quite unaware of these passages
or just skims over them while reading the Bible without realizing how
obviously mythological they are. Giving some attention to them can be
one way of helping people realize the variety of ways in which creation
is presented in scripture. (& to forestall the obvious criticism -
these passages passages should be taken seriously as part of the witness
to revelation. But they ain't history or science.)
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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