O.T. Prof. Walton (at Wheaton) on Genesis

Dear ASA friends,

One book by an Evangelical scholar that I heartily endorse to my
"fundamentalistic" creationist friends is Dr. Walton's NIV APPLICATION
COMMENTARY on GENESIS, published in 2002 by Zondervan I think. Available
at all major Christian bookstores, which is where I picked mine up.
Walton's analysis of verses, and questions concerning how literally to
take Genesis are thought provoking. I sent Dr. Walton a letter of praise
and he wrote me back to say...

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Dear Ed,

One URL that might be of interest to you is the audio of my keynote
address at Wheaton's Cosmology Conference in 2003 where I presented my
view of Genesis 1 to the conference attendees. It can be accessed at:
 
www.wheaton.edu/physics/conferences03

I am doing a lot of work these days on ANE ontology which supports very
strongly the theory that I have presented in the NIV APPLICATION
COMMENTARY on GENESIS that I wrote in 2002. The ontology of ancient
Israel construed in similar terms helps unpack Genesis 1 since, obviously,
the understanding of what is understood by bringing something into
existence depends considerably on how one defines existence.
 
I have recently contracted with Eisenbrauns to do a monograph on Genesis 1
as Ancient Cosmology which will get much more into the ontology side of
the issue as well as develop Genesis 1 in relationship to the Sumerian
concepts of ME and NAM (the control attributes of the cosmos and the
"destinies"). There are many intriguing implications to this study.
 
Best Wishes,
John
______________________________
John H. Walton
Department of Biblical Studies
Wheaton College and Graduate School
501 College Avenue
Wheaton, IL 60187
 
(630) 752-5276
(630) 752-5902 fax
 
john.h.walton@wheaton.edu
Received on Wed Oct 6 22:10:23 2004