This notion of accomodation also turns up in medieval commentaries on the
Six Days. There's an excellent example of it in Thomas Aquinas _Summa
Theologiae_, I, 68, art. 3: "Does the firmament separate some waters from
others?" Some, he notes, have sought to account for the "waters above the
firmament" on a theory that above the visible heavens is an infinite expanse
of water. St. Thomas goes on:
"But since this theory can be seen to be false by solid arguments, it
should not be maintained that it is the sense of this Scriptural text. Take
into account, rather, that Moses was speaking to ignorant people and out of
condescension to their simpleness presented to them only those things that
are immediately obvious to the senses. Everyone no matter how unschooled,
can perceive with his senses that earth and water are bodies. On the other
hand, all do not recognize air as being a body--even some philosophers have
held that air is nothing, and refer to something full of air as empty.
Therefore, Moses makes express mention of water and earth, but not of air,
in order to avoid introducing something the unlearned knew nothing about....
"Therefore, should we take firmament to mean either the heaven in which
the stars are located or the cloudy region of the atmosphere, there is
nothing wrong with saying that the firmament divides some waters from
others, whether 'water' refers to some unformed matter or whether 'waters'
is understood of all transparent bodies...."
St. Thomas is clearly seeking to reconcile the biblical text with the
dominant scientific theory of his own time, the Aristotelian theory of the
elements, which makes air lighter than earth and water, and thus above the
waters of the Earth, where it constitutes Earth's atmosphere. He expresses
a principle of hermeneutics which I believe precedes him (does anyone know
if it was used by Augustine?), and was adopted by Galileo in his "Letter on
the Use of Biblical Quotations in Matters of Science" (1615): the plain
sense often represents an accomodation to the limitations of the unlearned.
The example is a different one from the present discussion (Rogland's post),
but perhaps a different species of the same genus. It does illustrate that
there is a long history in Christianity of trying to relate biblical texts
to scientific theory and knowledge, and this was one way, a respected one
for several centuries, that was used to do so, whatever one might think of
it today.
Bob Schneider
----- Original Message -----
From: "bivalve" <bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2002 2:19 PM
Subject: Re: Scripture and the ASA; Robt Rogland's post
>
> The idea of accommodation to the ways of the people of the time is
> also cited by Calvin in his discussion of the Dt. 21 passage on
> marrying a prisoner of war. He also notes the ethical difficulties
> brought up by the command to wipe out the Midianite women in Numbers
> 31. These are not new problems!
>
> Dr. David Campbell
> Old Seashells
> University of Alabama
> Biodiversity & Systematics
> Dept. Biological Sciences
> Box 870345
> Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 USA
> bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
>
> That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted
> Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at
> Droitgate Spa
>
>
>
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