A mushroom and a couple parasites have been discovered in a seriously old chunk of amber. Which brings a question to mind. (It does not beg a question, because begging the question means circular reasoning.) How do you read Genesis?
I got into a discussion about the age of the universe on Thinklings, and I thought I’d bring up the topic here though not for debate because we don’t want to reach our target heart-rate on this blog. So, how do you read Genesis? Does it appear to be straight-forward history, despite the miraculous content? Are there literary cues you can point to showing it to be symbolic?
I’ve heard some people extract odd meanings from the first few chapters, because they don’t appear to be familiar with reading ancient literature. Genesis isn’t written a like modern book, so it can’t be read like one.
I suppose you mean the first few chapters, roughly from the beginning to either after the expulsion or after the flood.
Unfortunately, I do not have much of an opinion, except to say that I don’t think the issue is as important as a lot of other people think it is, and certainly not worth the acrimony that such debates tend to bring out among Christians.
I believe in a literal Adam and Eve, and in a literal fall from innocence into sin. That is about all I’m prepared to say on the matter.
Well, I don’t plan to argue with you, Ethan, and you’re right about acrimony regardless the subject. I know some people are rude, but I wonder if others argue about doctrines and politics with such fierceness because their own faith is not firm. Or they are insecure in other ways.
An important principle of most inerrantists (one that’s not much understood) is that various portions of Scripture have to be read in different ways. Poetry must be read differently from historical narrative, for instance.
My problem with the early chapters of Genesis is that I’m not entirely sure how the material intends itself to be read.
And overall is the consideration (one often overlooked, but whose importance grows for me with each year) that we are not being given exhaustive information. We are being informed only on a “need to know” basis. Lots of stuff that would be very interesting to us, I’m confident, has been withheld because it would satisfy only curiosity, not spiritual need.
Those are good points, but what raises questions for you on how Genesis should be read? Like I said in the post, it’s certainly an ancient book, so it can trip up some people with its wording, but I don’t see how chapters 1-11 could be anything but straight-forward history like the rest of the book.