The REAL World of
Genesis 1
Ge
1:1 In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth.
I have recently become
aware of a troubling new challenge to (and rejection of) the face-value,
historic understanding of the creation account in Genesis 1. It claims that the
original “world” of Genesis 1 is “lost” to us and can only be “rediscovered” by
studying other ancient cosmologies that were being developed in Babylon, Egypt,
and Phoenicia. Because Genesis was first written for the Hebrews living in
ancient times, this view proposes that we must understand the cultural and religious climate of the
world in which they lived in order to grasp the real meaning of Genesis 1.
A leading evangelical Old
Testament scholar, Dr. John Walton, authored a book entitled, The Lost World
of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (2010,
InterVarsity Press). Dr. Walton, Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Wheaton
College in Wheaton, Illinois, has also presented his views in the notes on
Genesis in the NRSV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (2019, Zondervan).
Dr. Walton proposes
that the Hebrew word bara, translated “create” in Genesis 1:1, does not
require the modern English meaning of “bring into initial existence.” Instead,
in his view, the term can signify taking what already exists materially and giving
it its proper function and purpose.” In other words, God gave the sun, moon,
and stars, for example, “functional existence rather than material existence” (NRSV
Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, p. 4, in the article titled “Creation and
Existence”). They already existed materially before God “created” them.
So, according to this
theory, Genesis 1 does not actually describe God bringing anything into its
initial existence at all, whether in a seven-day period or otherwise. It does
not have anything to do with God initially bringing into existence light, the
expanse, the vegetation, the sun, moon, and stars, fish and birds, or beasts
and man. It proposes instead that Genesis 1 tells us that God took
materials that He had previously created materially, perhaps even millions of
years earlier, perhaps through evolutionary processes, and gave them form and
function.
The more I have
reviewed this approach, the more concerned I have become. I have been surprised
to see it being considered, supported, and validated in various conservative,
evangelical religious circles. Even some instructors and other leaders in
Christian university settings whom I know personally have given it a public
hearing without clearly refuting it.
They claim, along with
Walton, that one may accept, support, and teach this position without
compromising the Bible’s inspiration, accuracy, historicity, and reliability.
Obviously, this
approach allows for, perhaps even calls for, some form of “theistic evolution”
or “evolutionary creationism.” These ideas propose that evolutionary processes
may have occurred over eons of time before God’s revelation in Genesis began,
but that God oversaw or allowed these processes.
In this view, the “days”
of Genesis 1 are not “days” in any time-related sense, whether 24-hour days or
long ages of time. The controversy over the age of the earth and the universe
is irrelevant to the “real” message of Genesis 1.
There are multiple
reasons for my conviction that this interpretation is false. Not only does it,
in my opinion, contradict the face-value reading of Genesis 1. It also
contradicts the way the rest of God’s inspired word treats Genesis 1. I cannot
find any evidence that Moses, the prophets, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, or
the apostles approached the text in this way. Nor have I seen it in the
uninspired writings of the earliest Christians.
In other words, this “lost
world” theory proposes that basically no one really understood the “true”
meaning of the text until very recently, when modern scholarship “found” it.
How did those living in the age of inspired scripture miss it, if it is now so
obvious? How did Christians and commentators throughout the centuries not see
this, if it was there all the time, relatively easy to discover?
And another thing. If
this theory is true, when did the real meaning of Genesis 1 become lost? Who
lost it and why? Considering how seriously the Hebrews transmitted their
God-given beliefs through the centuries, how did they not pass on to their children
the “correct” interpretation that has only recently been recovered?
I am convinced that
the “real world” of Genesis 1 was never “lost,” and I base that conviction on
what I read everywhere in the Word of God. I cannot see any inspired scripture
which would keep me from taking the Genesis creation account at face value.
Rather, the Spirit-led writers treated the text just as most Bible students
once did – just for what it says. They did not attempt to “get behind the text”
and explain that it meant something different from what it said.
The Law of Moses
Let’s begin with the
words God spoke – yes, God Himself – when He gave Moses and
Israel the Law, including the Ten Commandments.
Ex 20:9 “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in
it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or
your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,
the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore, the
Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.”
It's interesting to
study the source of the seven-day week in world history. Have you ever
considered its origin? From a biblical standpoint, the seven-day week reflected
the week of creation as described in Genesis. There is no other explanation
given.
When God Himself said,
“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that
is in them, and rested on the seventh day,” how would the people of Israel
have understood “six days?” If they would have taken these words to mean
something different from what they say, the burden of proof is on those who
would teach such a thing.
Surely those ancient
Hebrews were much closer to the “real” world of Genesis than anyone living
today, whether a scholar or otherwise. After all, it was their world!
Surely God could have communicated to them in ways that they could understand.
He would not have misled them. If the “seven days” had been related to the
ancient cosmologies of other cultures, and not to the days of the week with
which they were familiar, He could have indicated that. Why did He not?
Why didn’t God through
Moses explain Himself? The “lost world” hypothesis would perhaps answer that
God didn’t need to explain the “hidden meaning” of the seven days because the
Hebrews already understood that meaning.
However, God went on
to stipulate the “face-value” meaning of Genesis 1 again. Once more, again in
Exodus, God Himself interpreted the words of Genesis 1 in this same way.
Ex 31:16 “‘So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to
celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual
covenant.’ 17 “It is a sign between
Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and
earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”
The Psalms
Let’s continue. What
did the psalmists consider to be the truth about Genesis and creation? Granted,
they used Hebrew poetry, rather than prose narrative. However, it seems clear
enough that they connected Genesis 1 to the God’s original creation, not to His
(much) later providing purpose to the heavens and earth that He had already
made.
As you read this next
text, consider what event was likely in mind when you see, “Of old You founded
the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.” Does this statement not
interpret Genesis 1:1 as referring to God’s initial creation? (By the way, these
words, first ascribed to Yahweh in this text, are later cited and ascribed to
Christ in Hebrews 1:10-12, as another indicator of his full deity.)
Ps 102:25 “Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the
work of Your hands. 26 “Even
they will perish, but You endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment;
Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. 27 “But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an
end.”
Again, though using
poetic language, this next passage from Psalm 104 also points back to Genesis
1. It affirms the understanding that the first chapter of the Bible was to be
taken for what it said.
Ps 104:5 He established the earth upon its foundations, So that it
will not totter forever and ever. 6 You
covered it with the deep as with a garment; The waters were standing above the mountains. 7 At Your rebuke they fled, At the sound of Your thunder
they hurried away. 8 The
mountains rose; the valleys sank down To the place which You established for
them. 9 You set a boundary
that they may not pass over, So that they will not return to cover the earth.
The Later Prayer of
Nehemiah
Notice how Nehemiah
affirmed the Genesis creation when he praised God centuries later. In the 400s
BC, Nehemiah led the effort to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem after the Jews
returned from Babylonian exile.
Ne 9:6 “You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, The
heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The
seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly
host bows down before You.
The Teaching of Jesus
Jesus believed and
taught that God made male and female from the beginning, apparently pointing to
the original creation. Jesus accepted the plain meaning of Genesis and gave no
indication that it had been lost. Also, Jesus quoted from both Genesis 1 and
Genesis 2 together, as both belonged to one united creation account.
Noticeably absent from
His teaching is any indication that the words of Genesis 1 had been
misunderstood. There is no evidence that He connected the creation account with
ancient cosmologies or anything else that was not stated in the text. He never
suggested that there was a “lost world of Genesis 1.”
Mt 19:4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who
created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father
and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’”?
The “Beginning” of
John’s Gospel
When the apostle John
by inspiration wrote in John 1:1, “In the beginning …” he tied that phrase from
Genesis 1:1 to God’s original creation. I see no room here for the idea that
the heavens and the earth pre-existed the creation discussed in Genesis 1. To
John, “the beginning” of Genesis 1:1 was not the time that God took the
pre-existing heavens and earth and gave them form and purpose. No, “the
beginning” for John was the point at which God through the Word, Jesus
Christ, brought all things into being.
Jn 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. 2 He
was in the beginning with God. 3 All
things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being
that has come into being. 4 In
Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
The Teaching of Paul
When Paul by
inspiration wrote regarding Genesis 1-3, he also accepted the text at face
value. He did not connect it to the ancient cosmologies of Babylon or Egypt.
Neither did he indicate at any point that its meaning had been lost.
Paul believed that
when God said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3), that was the point at which
He created light. It was not the point at which God took pre-existing light,
which had been around for perhaps millions of years, and gave it form and
purpose.
2 Co 4:6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is
the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Christ.
Paul accepted the
Genesis account of God’s making the first man, Adam. Adam was a real person,
created directly by God from the ground, not as the result of an evolutionary
process that began long before Genesis 1. In fact, the Bible says, “Then the
LORD God formed man (Hebrew, adam) of dust from the
ground (Hebrew, adamah), and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life; and man became a living being” (Ge 2:7). The very name “Adam” reflects
Paul’s conviction that Adam was created from the ground, rather than his having
evolved from previous life forms.
1 Co 15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a
living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
Genesis presents Eve
as a real person, whom God made from one of Adam’s ribs (Ge 2:18-23). Adam
called her “woman” (Hebrew, ishshah) because she was
taken from man (Hebrew, ish). He also named her “Eve”
(from the Hebrew term for life or living), because she was “the mother of all
living” (Ge 3:20). From the standpoint of Genesis, it is false to say that Adam
and Eve evolved from pre-human beings who existed possibly millions of years
before the Bible’s creation account. Eve had no mother; she was the
mother!
Paul likewise
presented Eve as a real person. He taught that she was taken from the man, just
as Genesis said, not as the result of evolution. Paul taught that a real
serpent deceived Eve in a real moment in history.
1 Co 11:8 For man does not originate from woman, but woman from
man; 9 for indeed man was not
created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake. 10 Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on
her head, because of the angels. 11 However,
in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of
woman. 12 For as the woman
originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and
all things originate from God.
2 Co 11:3 But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his
craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of
devotion to Christ.
Paul by inspiration
taught that the gender distinctives for men and women originated in the actual
historical events described accurately in Genesis. When the simple message of
Genesis is questioned, minimized, or rejected, the God-created distinctions
between male and female are blurred. We continue to see this in the religious
world today.
1 Ti 2:11 A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire
submissiveness. 12 But
I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain
quiet. 13 For it was Adam who
was first created, and then Eve. 14 And
it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into
transgression. 15 But women will be preserved
through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity
with self-restraint.
In closing …
The best interpreter
of the Bible, and the most ancient and reliable interpreter, is the Bible
itself. There is no clear indication (that I can see) in the scriptures
themselves that the Jews ever understood Genesis 1 in ways other than its
apparent meaning. The idea that no one through the centuries could properly
interpret the text or comprehend its “real” meaning is very troubling. I would
need solid proof of such a claim.
Let me say this once
more. If the real world of Genesis 1 was somehow lost, who lost it? When, how,
and why did that happen? Did no one ever write it down and preserve it?
Wouldn’t that have been Moses’ role?
I cannot comprehend
how the Jews, who so carefully and accurately transmitted the Word of God
throughout the centuries, somehow lost the proper understanding of Genesis. I
cannot see what reason they would have to start taking the text to mean just
what it says. How could a Jew, or a group of Jews, pull such a switch and make
such a change? Why is there no record of it? Why weren’t they caught and
stopped by those who knew better?
Here are some wise
words from an unknown source that are worth considering. “If someone tells you
that he has found something in the Bible that no one has seen before in the two
thousand years since the Bible was written, be careful! Perhaps what he says he
found was never there to begin with.”
Of course, one may
choose to reject the Bible completely, including what it says about creation.
However, in my judgment, one who accepts the Bible cannot remove from it the
claim that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the
seventh day.
And so, I go back to where
I started, back to where this post began, “in the beginning.”
Ge 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth.
