>I do not think I am requiring a modern historical text from Genesis. I get
>that objection a lot and I find it to be a red herring. All I am asking
>for is that the outline of events be actual events. And if they are actual
>historical events then I see no reason why one can not lay out a proposed
>scenario which fits those events into the other parts of history we know from
>other sources, such as archaeology and paleontology. If the events are truly
>historical (regardless of what kind of literature their memory is preserved
>in) there must be a way to mesh the events with known history. A poor model
>may be Homer. Homer wrote poetry but he preserved a memory of a real event
>that can now be meshed with the rest of the history of the ancient world. I
>know approximately when Troy was, where it was.
I think that there is a fundamental difference in the way each of us
understands the word "history." For example, I understand the fall as an
historical event in human history. However, the Genesis account is an
allegorical treatment of that event. The accounts of the flood and the
tower of Babel, and the geneologies that conect them, I also believe to
record glimpses of distant human history in Mesopotamia. However, those
events are in a sense hidden behind (or within) the Biblical stories. They
are not historical texts in having as their objective the preservation of
ancient history. I believe that their purpose rather is to reveal God's
character and covenantal relationship with His created image bearers, and
their continued rebellion and disobedience. It is on these issues that I
would want to focus my attention. I suspect that beyond identifying the
existence of ancient Mesopotamian cultures, that any "mesh with known
history" is not possible. Our knowledge of these cultures however, does
shed light on the literary influences of the passage.
>While I certainly would not believe that God intended to write a extremely
>detailed history of the universe, or to write a science book, this belief
>does not absolve God of His responsibility to communicate truth to his
>prophets so that they could in turn communicate them to me.
God does not have a responsibility to communicate _anything_ to us. He
certainly isn't responsible to satisfy my curiosity. There is much that
God has chosen not to reveal to us. However, God by His grace has given us
all that we need for "teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in
righteousness" that we might be "thoroughly equipped for every good work."
Keith
Keith B. Miller
Department of Geology
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506
kbmill@ksu.ksu.edu
http://www.ksu.edu/~kbmill/