The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate by John H. Walton

The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate by John H. Walton

Author:John H. Walton [Walton, John H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Religion, Biblical Studies, Old Testament
ISBN: 9780830837045
Google: 6qZLAz3TckgC
Amazon: B003VM8QK0
Barnesnoble: B003VM8QK0
Goodreads: 6515073
Publisher: IVP Academic
Published: 2009-05-22T00:00:00+00:00


AS DISCUSSED IN CHAPTER THREE when we explored the word bard , the word literal can have different meanings to different people. Mostly people use the word to express that they want to understand what the text "really says." The question is, what criteria make that determination? Certainly the meanings of words and the grammatical and syntactical framework are of importance. But grammar, words and sentences are all just the tools of communication. Usually our search to find out what a text "really says" must focus on the intended communication of the author and the ability of the audience to receive that same intended message. Words, grammar and syntax will be used adequately by a competent writer or speaker to achieve the desired act of communication. The same words can be used in a straightforward manner, or be used in a symbolic, metaphorical, sarcastic or allegorical way to achieve a variety of results.

As readers, we want to know how the author desired his communication to be understood. I referred to this in chapter three as the "face value" of the text. If a communication is intended to be metaphorical, the interpreter interested in the face value will want to recognize it as metaphor. If the author intends to give a history, the interpreter must be committed to reading it that way. In other words, interpreters have to give the communicator the benefit of the doubt and treat his communication with integrity.

Interpreters have come to Genesis 1 with a variety of approaches. Increasingly those who are uncomfortable with the scientific implications of the traditional interpretation have promoted a variety of ways to read the text so as to negate those implications. For example, some have suggested that the text is only theological-indicating that God is the Creator and the sabbath is important. Others have indicated that the text has a literary shape that makes it poetic and should not be taken as any sort of scientific record. While it is easy to affirm that important theology is the foundation of the account and that it has an easily recognizable literary shaping, one can still ask, is that all there is? Those who have championed the "literal" interpretation of the text have objected that these approaches are reductionistic attempts to bypass difficult scientific implications and claim that by pursuing them the text is so compromised that it is, in effect, rejected.

In the cosmic-temple interpretation offered in this bookwhich sees Genesis 1 as an account of functional origins-we find a different sort of resolution to the problems faced by the interpreter. I believe that if we are going to interpret the text according to its face value, we need to read it as the ancient author would have intended and as the ancient audience would have heard it. Though the literary form of expression and the theological foundation are undeniable, I believe that study of the ancient world indicates that far more is going on here than that.

Scholars in the past who have



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