Bjoern Moeller wrote:
>
> Dear list,
>
> As Noah and his ark is already an issue it is
> appropriate to put out a question that has its
> background in a discussion I had with my brother in
> law yesterday. He is not a Christian, but he is still
> intelligent (sic).
>
> The discussion was about the genesis of the rainbow in
> the context of Gen. 9, 12-17, especially verse 13.
>
> Was this the first appearance of the rainbow, i.e. did
> God create the rainbow (or rather the natural
> phenomenon rainbow) at this moment ? Or did the
> rainbow show up for natural reasons (i.e. light
> breaking in water), and then God used the occasion to
> make a covenant with Noah? With the last alternative
> it is implied that this was not the first time a
> rainbow showed in the sky.
>
> My intelligent brother in law inferred the
> consequences of God creating the rainbow at that
> moment to be (probably) that the natural incident of
> light breaking in water never had occurred before,
> which he finds improbable. At least if it ever had
> rained before the time of Noah, which is highly
> probable.
>
> I suggested a reading of verse 13 which concords with
> alternative two above; the rainbow appearing (either
> by divine intervention, or for natural reasons), but
> not for the first time. My brother in law did not
> agree with me.
>
> Any theologians, physicists or other good people out
> there with a justified opinion?
On questions like this the older commentaries are often the most helpful, even
though their presuppositions about the historical character of the narratives need not
be accepted. John Peter Lange's commentary on Genesis (German originally published in
Bonn, 1864: 6th English edition by Scribner's, New York, 1915) discusses the matter
in some detail (pp.328-329). He argues that there is no need to interpret the passage
as meaning that the rainbow had not existed or had never been seen before this occasion.
"The starry night too is made the sign of a promise for Abraham (ch.xv)" - & of course
that doesn't mean no one had seen the stars before.
Lange argues that a scientific understanding of the rainbow does not
require any new interpretation of this passage. He quotes Maimonides (12th century) as
pointing out that the text does not have God say "the bow that I am now setting" but "my
bow I set (or did set) in the clouds" and understands this to mean "the bow which I put
in the cloud in the day of creation, shall be, for this day, and henceforth, for a sign
of the covenant ..."
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
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