Re: Examples of God accomodating ancient "science" in the Bible?

Loren,

I will be happy to give you more examples if and when I think of them, but
I have a comment on Job 38. When I read that chapter, I have a difficult
time believing that that is merely the science of the times. It seems so
figurative that I tend to imagine that the original readers recognized it
as such. Did they think that God used builder's tools to create the earth?

Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395

On Mon, 31 Jan 2005, Loren Haarsma wrote:

>
> I'm looking for some ideas and some references.
>
> I sometimes have the opportunity to tell students about the cosmological
> picture of the ancient Near East when the Old Testament was written -- a
> flat earth, waters below and the earth and waters above the sky, with a
> solid dome "firmament" holding back the waters above the sky. Other
> neighboring cultures shared with the Hebrews that physical picture of the
> cosmos, but they ascribed various deities to parts of the cosmos. Once
> students are familiar with this, I can then suggest that one sensible
> interpretation of Genesis 1 is that God accomodated himself to the
> physical picture -- the "science" -- of the times, but with a radical
> theological message. The original audience of Genesis 1 would have heard
> a familiar physical picture of the cosmos being described, but with a very
> clear theological message, about who created it all, at odds with the
> religions of the surrounding cultures.
>
> Some students latch onto this idea quickly. Others are understandably
> cautious. Would God really accomodate wrong "science" when inspiring
> scripture?
>
> So it occured to me that it might help to give several more examples of
> God accomodating himself in his spoken revelation to the "science" of the
> times of the original audience.
>
> I listed some examples below. My question is: can you think of other
> passages?
>
>
> Loren Haarsma
>
> ===============================================================
> --Joshua 10. Joshua prays that the sun will stand still. God doesn't
> tell Joshua to instead pray that the earth will stop rotating; rather, God
> honors Joshua's request the way Joshua would have understood it.
>
> --I Chronicles 16:30, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, Psalm 104:5. These poems
> proclaim that the earth is fixed and cannot be moved. They do this in
> order to make a theologial point about God's faithfulness and power. God
> teaches a theological point without correcting the science.
>
> --Psalm 19:5-6. The sun is described as rising and setting, making a
> circuit.
>
> --Job 38:4-11. God is quoted as taking credit for stretching out the
> firmament, shutting up the sea behind doors and bars, setting the earth on
> footings and a cornerstone.
>
> --Job 38:22, Psalm 135:7, Jeremiah 10:13, 51:15. Snow, rain, hail, and
> wind are pictured as coming out of storehouses.
>
> --Genesis 30:25-43. Laban agrees that Jacob can take the speckled,
> spotted, and dark-colored sheep and goats from Laban's flock as payment
> for his years of work. Jacob puts some pealed branches into watering
> troughs during breeding time, in a way which he believes will cause the
> animals which mate there to have speckled, spotted and dark-colored
> offspring. Jacob's actions make no sense from a modern scientific
> perspective. God didn't make Jacob first learn proper genetics, but God
> did cause Jacob to prosper.
> ====================================================
>
Received on Mon Jan 31 18:18:03 2005