On Thu, 14 Mar 1996 14:09:25 -0600 (CST) you wrote to Chuck Warman:
[...]
SS>I have to jump in again. I don't think the statement "when in
>doubt, use (c)" applies for a literal-seven day creation six thousand
>years ago. Geologists don't have many doubts that the earth is
>vastly older than 6000 or so years....
Agreed.
SS>I guess that the way we all read and interprete the Bible is based
>to a large extent on our personal backgrounds and experiences but, in
>my opinion, the creation stories don't appear to be an historical
>narrative at all. They have a definite mythological (I'm not using
>the word in a perjorative sense) flavor to them.
IMHO it's too simplistic to just apply a simple dualistic either
"historical" or "mythological" categorisation to Genesis 1-11.
Genesis 1-11 goes to great lengths to give us historical details, such
as names, places, dates, etc. Also, compared with other accounts of
creation and the Flood (eg. Babylonian), Genesis 1-11 is clearly
nowhere near as mythological as they are. Pinnock says:
"When we look at the Bible, it is clear that it is not radically
mythical. The influence of myth is there in the Old Testament. The
stories of creation and fall, of flood and the tower of Babel, are
there in pagan texts and are worked over in Genesis from the angle of
Israel's knowledge of God, but the framework is no longer mythical.
God is described as sovereign over history and every power and breaks
down the suppositions of myth. What we find of this sort are "broken
myths," allusions to ancient myths but now translated into different
terms. They occur now as symbols of the realm of transcendence and no
longer as events and literal references...The category of legend would
explain them all. Barth has suggested that we speak of "saga" in
these cases, a kind of writing that is neither myth nor exact
description but a storylike expansion of God's intervention in history
and not accessible to historical investigation as such." (Pinnock
C.H., "The Scripture Principle", Hodder & Staughton: London, 1985,
pp123-124)
God bless.
Steve
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