Re: classic arguments
George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Mon, 08 Dec 1997 17:43:59 -0500Arthur V. Chadwick wrote:
>
> At 04:26 PM 12/8/97 -0500, George wrote:
>
> > It is essential to believe that the Redeemer is the Creator.
> >That is precisely Athanasius' argument in _On the Incarnation_. But it
> >does _not_ follow from this that teaching us _about_ creation is an
> >important part of the work of Christ.
>
> Since Creation was a given in the culture of His earthly ministry, Christ
> needed to say very little concerning it to His contemporaries. For Paul
> and Peter, the frequent confirmation of this fact can only be a reflection
> of their increasing forages into the Greek world where this was not
> established doctrine. Given this circumstance it is certainly difficult to
> judge what weight the doctrine of Creation had from what He said (He was
> busy enough just trying to get people to recognize who He was) except by
> His numerous references to the authority of the book of Genesis containing
> the story.
Of course Genesis was authoritative for Jesus, but again -
establishing authority & truth do not settle questions of genre &
interpretation. Jesus was also (because he was who he was) free to add
to Genesis - note Mk.10:9, even though Genesis 2 had not previously been
understood to oppose divorce. & it's consistent with that that Paul
gives Christ priority over Adam in Romans 5, so that trying to
understand human nature in terms of an historical Adam is henceforth a
mistake.
George Murphy