Re: [asa] The Barr quote

Randy:
Here is the content of my message (with a typo corrected) to the ASA
forum on May 15 2007.
( I now emphasize that Barr's book "Escaping from Fundamentalism" is as
a strong criticism -- even condemnation -- of the YEC view!)
Don

The AiG quote *part* of the letter from Barr, who regarded Genesis 1-11
as a theological story, not science, as one learns from reading Barr's
book, the one mentioned in the letter.
Stephen E. Jones has posted the full letter, as released by AiG
Australia, which reads as follows.

                THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE
    [Oxford PUSEY LANE
    University OXFORD
    shield] OX1 2LE
                        Telephone 59272

THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
                    23 April 1984

David C.C. Watson, Esq.,
1300 N. Cross
Wheaton Illinois

Dear Mr Watson,

    Thank you for your letter. I have thought about your question, and
would say that [probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of
Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not
believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1-11 intended to convey to their
readers the ideas that (a) creation took place in a series of six days
which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience (b) the
figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition
a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the
biblical story (c) Noah's flood was understood to be world-wide and
extinguish all human and animal life except for those in the ark. Or, to
put it negatively, the apologetic arguments which suppose the `days' of
creation to be long eras of time, the figures of years not to be
chronological, and the flood to be a merely local Mesopotamian flood,
are not taken seriously by any such professors, as far as I know. The
only thing I would say to qualify this is that most professors may avoid
much involvement in that sort of argument and so may not say much
explicitly about it one way or the other. But I think what I say would
represent their position correctly. However, you might find one or two
people who would take the contrary point of view and are competent in
the languages, in Assyriology, and so on: it's really not so much a
matter of technical linguistic competence, as of appreciation of the
sort of text that Genesis is.
    Perhaps I might mention that I have another book coming out soon,
Escaping from Fundamentalism, SCM Press London, which has some
discussion of these questions. Westminster Press in Philadelphia are
doing the American edition, perhaps with a different title, I don't
know. It comes out in this country on 1st June.
    Thanks again for your letter and all good wishes,
        Yours sincerely
            James Barr [signed]

Randy Isaac wrote:
> I believe this quote from James Barr was discussed some time ago but I can't seem to find it or remember what the conclusion was. Can some of you please refresh my memory and give me the right perspective. A YEC'er who is in dialog with me brought up that quote as follows:
>
> "As for what competent Hebrew scholars think about chronological information in the Bible, here's a quote from James Barr, who at the time was Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University:
>
> "... probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1-11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that:
>
> "(a) creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 we now experience,
>
> "(b) the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story,
>
> "(c) Noah's flood was understood to be worldwide and extinguish all human and animal life except for those in the ark." **"
>
>
> Obviously, the argument he was raising against me was that all OT scholars of repute are YEC.
>
> Randy
>

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