The actual phrase “and God said” is non-literal (e.g., God does not have vocal chords). It seems you’ve ignored or misunderstood my previous explanation of “literal.” As I’ve been using it, the term doesn’t apply to statements of purpose (which is what Day 4 is all about). Nowhere does the text describe in scientific terms how God made the luminaries or set them in their places.
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This is why I linked you to LeFebvre’s work. Go do some reading.
Again, where is Jesus’ resurrection connected to the phrase “from dust”?
I’ts called The Manifold Beauty of Genesis One: A Multi-Layered Approach (with Kregel; co-authored with @davidson) We’re doing the galley proofs right now (literally that’s what I’m doing at this very moment, apart from breaks to check out the internet!). It should be out in October. I’m presenting a paper that summarizes and discusses the book at ETS in November, so maybe I’ll post the paper here beforehand to get some feedback. But it’s an attempt to summarize various literary-theological readings of the text that help Christians move beyond the origins debate (and introduce laypersons to what biblical theologians do with the text).
They could be literal history without modern scientific precision. A key tenet of the Chicago Statements (which define literalism) is that it’s silly to impute scientific precision upon ancient texts.
Yes, that’s an option. I think LeFebvre’s work points in a better direction, but since it’s relatively new, we’re still awaiting the communal critique.
Michael LeFebvre argues that almost all the timeline dates (i.e., those with specific month and day; 17 of the 21) in the Pentateuch fall on the listed dates of Israel’s festivals. He argues that these dates, including the five in the flood narrative (which are odd, on the surface, to even have specific dates) are meant to tie historical events to Israel’s festivals, not to give actual historical dates to (pre-)historic events. It sounds wild at first, but he makes a strong case when the data are observed. If true, it alleviates well-known chronological problems. (He then uses this pentateuchal phenomenon to make a similar case that Gen 1 is not meant to be read as a strict calendar.) Jack Collins, the well-known evangelical OT scholar who writes a lot on Genesis, wrote the forward.
To a YEC, any Christian who doesn’t accept their unimaginative interpretation of Scripture is a “compromiser”. But it could be argued that YEC’s are themselves “compromisers”, on account of their need to reject certain scientific discoveries to order to keep their exegesis afloat.
What would be really silly would be to - for no good reason - claim that the chronological details the Flood account (Gen 7, 8) are not precise, literal history.
The book of Genesis says Jacob had twelve sons – if it is “silly to impute scientific precision upon ancient texts”, then perhaps it is “silly” to conclude that Jacob literally had twelve sons. Ditto for the myriad of other historical details contained in Genesis.
I’m having trouble finding “non-literal” interpretations of the chronological details in the Flood account that I mentioned (Gen 7, 8) in my earlier post. If you could provide links that discuss that subject, I would be most grateful. Thanx.
No, I prefer something I can read, rather than something I have to listen to.
Gen 1:14-18 doesn’t contain any deep and meaningful, hidden secret or symbolism – even child could understand what it’s talking about.
That link didn’t discuss the Flood account, and I’m not going to waste money on a book that, in all probability, offers nothing more than yet another wild, wonderful and worthless interpretation of Genesis.
I wish I had a dollar for every explanation of Genesis that’s out there!
Was Jesus resurrected from “dust” to immortality? Yes or no?
Here’s something short to read on the flood. It’s an interview of John Walton by BioLogos. I know BioLogos isn’t well thought of here, but this interview may give you at least a start on the flood. If you like John Walton, you can find some good stuff from him on Gen 1-3 as well.
