genesis 1-2, science, and the christian 創世紀 1-2 ，科學與基督徒 jerry hwang chinese...

Genesis 1-2, Science, and the Christian 創世紀 1-2 ，科學與基督徒

Jerry Hwang

Chinese Immanuel Church

September 6-7, 2014

Genesis 1:1-2:3 in Historical and Literary Context從歷史和文學的背景來看創世紀 1:1-2:3

Saturday Evening Talk:

Preliminary Issues 主要問題 This weekend we will not resolve the creation-evolution

debate The theological significance of Genesis 1-2 in its ancient

context will be our focus Faithful, Bible-believing Christians can agree to disagree

over these issues It is crucial to understand the many differences

between how ancient and modern people view the material universe (a.k.a., the cosmos)

Frequently-asked questions as well as your questions will be addressed in Sunday morning’s 2nd session

General Principles of Interpretation

The Bible cannot mean something to us that it never meant to its original audience

For example, the apostle Paul’s warning to “beware of the dogs” (Phil 3:2) cannot refer to dangerous pets

Principle 1: We must interpret according to the Bible according to its literary context 文學的背景

General Principles of Interpretation (cont.) In several of his letters, the

apostle Paul tells his audience to “greet one another with a holy kiss” (e.g., Rom 16:16; 1 Cor 16:20)

But kissing between people of the same sex is a common Mediterranean greeting – no romance is involved!

Principle 2: We must interpret according to the Bible according to its historical context 歷史的背景

A seductive Christian Valentine’s card?

General Principles of Interpretation (cont.) So we must interpret Genesis 1-2 according to its

literary and historical contexts in a way that its original audience 3000+ years ago would have understood

Modern questions about science are relevant to Genesis 1-2 only if they share a historical context with the ancient audience

Key Question: How did Israel and her neighbors in the ancient Near East think about their world? 以色列和她在古代近東的鄰居是怎樣想他們的世界的？

Creation Stories in the Ancient Near East Enuma Elish: The god Marduk kills his rival Tiamat, the

sea monster, and forms the heavens and earth from her carcass

Atrahasis Epic: Humans are created in order to work for lazy gods, but their noisy work makes the gods angry, so they send a flood to destroy everything

Baal Cycle: Baal defeats Yam the sea-god, but is killed by Mot, the death-god; nature’s seasons come from Baal’s annual cycle of life, death, and resurrection

Note how these ancient accounts of creation share an emphasis on chaos and violence 混亂和暴力

Creation Stories in the Ancient Near East (cont.) Creation stories in the ancient Near East have

numerous similarities and differences with Genesis Before focusing later on the differences, some

similarities with Genesis should be noted, since they reflect how ancient people (including Israelites) approached creation Creation in both Genesis and the ancient Near East is not

mainly about how the universe came to exist Creation is about explaining why the universe exists and

how God/gods relate to their people All creation stories are more theological than chronological

in nature, since there were no atheists in the ancient world

A Theological Commentary on Genesis 1 Genesis 創世紀 1:1 – An Introduction or

Summary “In the beginning” – the cosmos has not always

existed, as opposed to other creation stories “God” – not many gods as elsewhere in the ANE,

but one deity “created” – made from nothing, as opposed to

recycling other material “the heavens and the earth” – everything there is

came from Him

A Theological Commentary on Genesis 1 (cont.)

Genesis 創世紀 1:2 – The Problem “Now the earth was formless and empty” – the

material world already existed before the six days to follow, but was chaotic or unordered in some way

“the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters” – the Spirit is actively at work in subduing the powers of chaos

The six days of creation that follow involve re-creation and organization, rather than the original beginnings of the universe


Genesis 創世紀 1:3 – The Solution, Day 1, Part 1 “Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was

light” – God’s simple act of speaking has awesome creative power, and no force or violence are needed

Genesis 創世紀 1:4 – The Solution, Day 1, Part 2 “God saw that the light was good, and he

separated the light from the darkness” – God’s re-creation is good, and God begins to order the chaos by dividing it into two parts


Genesis 創世紀 1:6 – The Solution, Day 2 “Let there be a vault between the waters to

separate water from water.” – God dividing the waters in half shows that His creation is not made from a dead goddess

God is stronger than ancient Near Eastern gods of fertility who supposedly control the rain, such as Baal; these other gods do not really exist


Genesis 創世紀 1:9, 11-12 – The Solution, Day 3 “Let the dry ground appear … let the earth produce

vegetation … The land produced vegetation…” Ancient peoples feared the seas as uncontrollable

powers, but God speaks and the water obeys A Question to Ponder: How can there be plant life

before the sun is made on the fourth day? This observation shows that Genesis 1 is not intended as a strictly chronological account


Genesis 創世紀 1:14, 17 – The Solution, Day 4 “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the

day from the night … God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.”

Ancient peoples were superstitious and feared the sun, moon, and stars like gods (compare Psalm 121), but God says that they simply do His will

Instead the only true God makes Day 4 the fulfillment of light’s function as created on Day 1


Genesis 1:20 – The Solution, Day 5, Part 1 “Let the water teem with living creatures,

and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.”

The seas and skies that were once “empty” (1:2) are now full of God’s creatures – the next step in building on the separation of seas and skies in Day 2


Genesis 創世紀 1:21, 22 – The Solution, Day 5, Part 2 “So God created the great creatures of the

sea monsters and every living thing with which the water teems and moves about in it…”

The “sea creatures” are an embodiment of watery chaos, over which the God of Genesis has absolute power


Genesis 1:24 – The Solution, Day 6, part 1 “Let the land produce living creatures

according to their kinds … And God saw that it was good”

The chaotic earth of darkness (1:2) now becomes the bright, fertile earth of life


Genesis 1:26 – The Solution, Day 6, part 2 “Let us make mankind in our image, in our

likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

God creates people to be His representatives to reverse chaos in a sinful world

A Theological Commentary on Genesis 2

Genesis 2:2 – The Creator’s Reign, Day 7 “God finished on the seventh day His work

which He had done, and he rested on the seventh day from the work He had done.”

God takes up residence in the earth as His cosmic Temple in order to rule over His creation (see Psalm 19’s description of “the heavens declare the glory of God”)

The Literary Shape of Genesis 1:1-2:4

Formlessness 混沌 Emptiness 空虛Day Item Created Day Item Created

1 Light w/darkness 4 Light for day/night

2 Sea and sky 5 Water/sky creatures

3 Fertile earth 6 Earth creatures7 God rests and rules in His cosmic Temple

Adapted from Allen Ross, Creation and Blessing, p. 104

Genesis 1-2 and Ancient Near Eastern Creation Stories

Major differences exist between Genesis 1 and its ancient counterparts God’s creation is good and not chaotic 好的 God’s creation is orderly and not random 有序的 God is distinct from his creation and not mingled

with nature 分别的 God rests in order to rule righteously, not because

He is lazy or tired 公義地管理 God triumphs over chaos by speaking His word 說

Genesis 2:4-25; Modern Views on Genesis 1-2創世紀2:4-25; 關於創世紀1-2 的

現代觀點

Sunday Morning Session #1:

Two Principles for Interpreting the Bible

The Bible must be interpreted in its historical context 歷史的背景 Ancient peoples were more interested in their

spiritual relationship to the gods and less interested in where the physical universe came from

In this cultural context, the Old Testament’s account of creation is provided for the purpose of drawing people to worship rather than giving scientific information

The Relationship of People and Gods in the Ancient Near East

Atrahasis Epic: The lower gods are tired of their work and the gods decide to create people to do their work

Eridu Genesis: The gods find people too noisy and decide to destroy them with a flood

Enuma Elish: Like the Atrahasis Epic, people are created in order to work for the gods

These three sources from Mesopotamia (i.e., ancient Babylon) view people as disposable instruments of selfish gods

Two Principles for Interpreting the Bible (cont.)

The Bible must be interpreted in its literary context 文學的背景 Reviewing from last night, the literary context of

Genesis 1 indicates that is a theological history of how God re-creates a fallen the world with His word, rather than a chronological history

After the original creation falls into being “formless and empty” (1:2), days 1-3 give form and chapters 4-6 give fullness to a renewed creation

The Relationship between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2

Literary context also helps us to understand how Genesis 1 relates to Genesis 2

Adam and Eve do not appear until Genesis 2:4-25, which is a more detailed account of the sixth day from Genesis 1:24-31

Genesis 1:1-2:3 provides a wide-angle view of creation, Genesis 2:4-25 provides a zoom view

Two views of

the Eiffel Tower in

Paris

A Theological Commentary on Genesis 2

By creating people last, God prepares to deploy them for His goal of maintaining order and preventing chaos Remember from last night that Genesis 1-2 is about the

function of the universe (Why?) more than its material origins (How?)

Genesis 創世紀 2:7, Day 6 – God’s Servant Created “Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the

ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” – people alone will bear the image of God (Gen 1:26-28)


Genesis 創世紀 2:15, Day 6 – God’s Servant Commissioned “The LORD God took the man and put him in the

Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” – even before the Fall, people have the task of continuing the work which God has begun

Unlike other ANE texts, humans in Genesis 2 are given dignity in working with God to enforce order, rather than being worthless slaves to lazy gods


Genesis 創世紀 1:27, Day 6 – God’s Servants Commissioned “So God created mankind in his own image, in the

image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Both Adam and Eve were created to bear God’s image and share in God’s work

Genesis 1-2 and Ancient Near Eastern Creation Stories

KEY IDEA 關鍵的思想 :

Genesis 1-2 are correcting ancient misunderstandings about creation, more than providing modern

explanations for the universe’s origins

創世紀 1-2 是來改正古代人對創造的錯誤理解，而不是對宇宙的起源來提供近代的解釋

Genesis 1-2 and ANE Creation Stories If Genesis 1-2 are dealing with God’s re-creation of

order out of chaos, and not the chronology of origins, which timeline should we believe? 時間表

Faithful, Bible-believing Christians have proposed three options Young-earth creation view 年輕地球創造觀 (e.g., Answers in Genesis)

Old-earth creation view 古老地球創造觀 (e.g., J. P. Moreland, Hugh Ross)

Evolutionary creation view 進化地球創造觀 (e.g., Bruce Waltke, Tim Keller)

Young-Earth Creation (YEC) View 年輕地球創造觀 YEC takes the genealogy of

Genesis 5 literally, so that the entire universe is 6,000-10,000 years old

YEC was the standard view before the modern era, when science became a discipline

According to YEC, the earth may appear to be old, but this is because the Flood has scrambled the geological record

Terry Mortensen, a scientist with Answers in

Genesis

Old-Earth Creation (OEC) View 古老地球創造觀 OEC holds that the “days” of

Genesis refer to eras of time rather than literal, 24-hour periods

OEC observes that “day” in the Bible can be symbolic (e.g., Psalm 90:4)

Also called “progressive creationism,” in order to emphasize that God created over a longer time span

J. P. Moreland, philosophy professor at Talbot

Seminary

Theistic-Evolution (TE) View 神設計的進化觀 TE distinguishes itself from

“atheistic evolution” by holding that God used or designed the process of evolution

TE follows the scientific consensus on the age of the universe, the origins of life, and natural selection

Also called “fully-gifted creation,” to emphasize that God personally gave creation its ability to grow over time

Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer

NYC

Some Important Reminders If we mainly view Genesis 1-2 as a history book of

“days,” we easily overlook how the Bible’s main focus is the goodness of creation 創造的美好 Creation brings meaning to life (Gen 1:26-28) 生命的意義 Creation means rest from work (Exod 20:11) 休息 Creation elevates the place of humanity (Ps 8) 人的位置 Creation brings glory to God (Ps 104) 榮耀神 Creation itself worships God (Ps 148) 敬拜神 Creation reminds us of salvation to come (Rom 8:19) 救恩

Some Important Reminders (cont.)

We must learn how to interpret the Bible in its historical and literary context 從歷史和文學的背景 – both Christians and skeptics have often failed to do this

The similarities between Genesis 1-2 and ancient Near Eastern stories do not compromise the Bible’s uniqueness, since the differences between them are just as important

Some Important Reminders (cont.)

It is counterproductive for Christians to attack Christians who hold a different view of creation, since the true foe is skeptics who deny God’s existence and involvement in the world

Genesis 1-2 will not provide enough information to resolve modern scientific questions about the universe’s origins—the original audience would not have understood these questions

Q&A on Creation, Genesis, and Science

關於創造，創世紀和科學的問答

Sunday Morning Session #2:

FAQs on Creation and Evolution

Is it possible that “day” in Genesis 1 refers to a longer era of time rather than a literal day?

Don’t the genealogies in Genesis mean that the universe and earth must be 6,000 years old?

How should Christians react when evolution is taught as the only view in public schools?

When and where do the dinosaurs fit into the Bible? Why didn’t God make creation in Genesis easier for us

to understand? Why is awareness of cultural backgrounds essential for interpretation?

Additional Resources Arnold, Bill, and Bryan Beyer. Readings from the Ancient Near East: Primary

Sources for Old Testament Study. Baker Academic, 2002.

Hamilton, Victor. Genesis 1-17. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Eerdmans, 1990.

Ross, Allan. From Creation to Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis. Baker, 1997.

Walton, John H. The Lost World of Genesis One. InterVarsity Press 2009

Wenham, Gordon. Genesis 1-15. Word Biblical Commentary. Thomas Nelson, 1987.

genesis 1-2, science, and the christian 創世紀 1-2 ，科學與基督徒 jerry hwang chinese...

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