RE: [asa] Re: Slug

I prefer to interpret in accordance with actual facts and consistent
with the Hebrew. If you find other authors who can't divide the word
that's no excuse for you not to do it. Here's what I said in my book:
 
Genesis 1:14,16: "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of
the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs,
and for seasons, and for days, and years ... And God made two great
lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule
the night: He made the stars also."
 
Some Bible scholars have put a strain on these passages, maintaining
that the sun, moon, and stars were created on the fourth day. This is
unwarranted. The emphasis in this verse is on the purpose for the
heavenly bodies, not their coming into existence.
 
If we take "the heaven" from Genesis 1:1 to include the visible
universe, or cosmos, then it would incorporate the sun, moon, and stars.
Even if we just take the heavens to mean "sky," it would be strangely
black without sunlight, moonlight, and starlight. The Expositor's Bible
Commentary reasons:
 
So the starting point of an understanding of vv.14-18 is the
view that the whole of the universe, including the sun, moon,
and stars, was created "in the beginning" (v.1) and thus not
on the fourth day. [i]
 
In the creation account, the Hebrew word bara' means create, and always
emanates from God. That can imply an ex nihilo creation, a literal out
of nothing creation (Gen. 1:1), or the use of elements brought into
existence previously as with primitive sea life (Gen. 1:21), also a man
and his woman (Gen. 1:27). The word "made" used in Genesis 1:14-19, is
the Hebrew 'asah, a more general term, and may mean "appoint" or
"accomplish" in this verse.
 
The Septuagint avoids confusion: "God indeed made the two great
luminaries, the greater luminary for the regulations of the day, and the
lesser luminary, with the stars, for the regulations of the night ..."
 
Thus, on the first day God created the sun, moon, and stars in addition
to the earth, and on the fourth day, God appointed the sun to govern the
day and commissioned the moon and stars to rule the night.
 
Had the sun not been created until the fourth day, we would be left to
wonder what caused the demarcation between the "day" and "night" named
on the first day (Gen. 1:5). Furthermore, from what we know about the
physics of orbital objects, it would be impossible for the earth and its
sister planets to circle a blank spot in space awaiting the sun's
creation."
 
BTW, Waltke was one of the authors of The Expositor's Bible Commentary
who apparently changed his tune when he wrote Genesis a Commentary,
 
Dick Fischer
Dick Fischer, Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
 <http://www.genesisproclaimed.org> www.genesisproclaimed.org
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Seely [mailto:PHSeely@msn.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 17, 2006 12:21 AM
To: ASA; Dick Fischer
Subject: Re: [asa] Re: Slug
 
Dick wrote,
<<There is nothing in the Hebrew that should cause us to believe that
God "created" the heavenly bodies on Day Four. The creation of "heaven"
which is everything in it, sun moon and stars included, was on Day One.
 Quoting Gleason Archer:
Verse 16 should not be understood as indicating the creation of the
heavenly
bodies for the first time on the fourth creative day; rather it informs
us that
the sun, moon, and stars created on Day One as the source of light had
been
placed in their appointed places by God with a view to their eventually
functioning as indicators of time ('signs, seasons, days, years') to
terrestrial
observers. The Hebrew verb 'wayya 'as' in v. 16 should better be
rendered
'Now [God] had made the two great luminaries, etc.,' rather than as
simple
past tense, [God] made. - Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible
Difficulties, 62>>.

Archer's book shows he has a distinct bias, so I don't think this is
good documentation. There is a very strong consensus of evangelical OT
scholars that the fourth day is about the CREATION of the sun, moon and
stars, not the concordist rewrite. See the archives at
http://www.asa3.org:16080/archive/ASA/200206/0033.html
Paul

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Received on Sat Jun 17 22:33:05 2006