From: Howard J. Van Till (hvantill@chartermi.net)
Date: Wed Jun 18 2003 - 16:57:03 EDT
>From: "bivalve" <bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com>
>
> Is Genesis 1 primarily about God or about science?
>
IMHO:
Genesis 1 is certainly not about modern science as we know it. The vast
majority of the conceptual vocabulary of today's natural sciences was
unknown to the writer or writers. Specifically, the idea that the age or the
formational history of "the heavens and the earth" -- as a single "universe"
-- would some day be accessible to the empirical natural sciences would have
been unthinkable.
Genesis 1 provides us, I believe, with the Hebrews' portrait of God, the
world, and humanity and their interrelationships -- a portrait that differed
in substantial ways from the polytheism of other Ancient Near Eastern
cultures. The seven-day structure of the narrative serves the purpose of
affirming that the Sabbath should be celebrated by the Hebrews every seven
days, an interval different from various other calendar cycles employed at
the time by polytheistic cultures.
Howard Van Till
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