>It seems to me that the main point of Kline's exegesis of 2:5 and 2:6 is
>that the ed (rain, mist, whatever) began after the scene of Gen 2:5. While
>he does seem to think ed should be translated as "rain," one of the
>possibilities he mentions is "rain cloud," which is not very specific. I
>don't think he's trying to nail down the precise nature of the water. He's
>trying to point out that it had a beginning after the time frame of Gen
>2:5.
I think that Kline's point is exceedingly simple. The requirement of
Genesis 2:5 that there be rain before plants could grow, means that
ordinary providence is in operation during the creation week. This was the
point of the earlier article "Because It Had Not Rained" (The Westminster
Theological Journal 20 (1958):146-157)
As he wrote in the latest article
"Acts of supernatural origination did initiate and punctuate the creation
process. And had God so pleased, his providential oversight of what he had
created might also have been by supernatural means during that process.
Gen. 2:5, however, takes it for granted that providential operations were
not of a supernatural kind, but that God ordered the sequence of creation
acts so that the continuance and development of the earth and its creatures
could proceed by natural means. This unargued assumption of Gen. 2:5
contradicts the reconstructions of the creation days proposed by the more
traditional views."
"The scenario conjured by the literalists' solar-day interpretation is, in
fact, utterly alien to the climate and tenor of Gen. 2:5. Within the flurry
of stupendous events which their view entails, each new cosmic happening
coming hard on the heels of the last and all transpiring within a few hours
or days, the absence of vegetation or anything else at any given point
would not last long enough to occasion special consideration of the reasons
for it. Within that time-frame such a question would be practically
irrelevant. Gen. 2:5 reflects an environmental situation that has obviously
lasted for a while; it assumes a far more leisurely pace on the part of the
Creator, for whom a thousand years are as one day." (p. 13).
Ordinary providence at work is a very different scenario than that put
forth by young-earth creationists.
TG
_____________________________________________________________
Terry M. Gray, Ph.D. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Calvin College 3201 Burton SE Grand Rapids, MI 40546
Office: (616) 957-7187 FAX: (616) 957-6501
Email: grayt@calvin.edu http://www.calvin.edu/~grayt