Month: November 2020

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Reading Genesis 1 Literally

Genesis 1 in a 1620 edition of the King James Bible. Reading Genesis 1 today is much more contentious than it was in 1620!
Genesis 1 in a 1620 edition of the King James Bible. Reading Genesis 1 today is much more contentious than it was in 1620!
Genesis 1 from a 1620 edition of the King James Bible

I recently received feedback to my post on my crisis of faith from a good friend. This post wasn’t really about reading Genesis 1. But it did address that obliquely. My faith crisis was brought on by a realization that some of the evidence that I had received for young earth creationism as a child was bogus. My friend points out that he had nearly the opposite experience. He was taught as a child that “the creation story was not literal and had to be ‘interpreted.'” Later, he adopted belief in young earth creationism.

In this post, I’d like to focus on this very wide-spread notion among Christians of a more progressive or mainstream bent that reading Genesis 1 literally is not appropriate. Many of them would say that it has to be interpreted symbolically. Sometimes well-meaning believers attempt to make their faith look respectable. Thus, they try to make Genesis 1 square with modern evolutionary science. Even if they don’t take this approach, it is very common for Bible interpreters to reduce the entire text down to pure symbol. They completely abandon any shred of a literal, primary sense.

Reading Genesis 1 Literally, not Scientifically or Symbolically

I think that both of these approaches are a mistake. Personally, I have no problems at all with evolution. But you just can’t find anything evocative of modern scientific theory in the biblical text. (That goes for the pseudo-science of young earth creationism, too, however). But that doesn’t mean that reading Genesis 1 isn’t legitimate. So, in this post, I am going to argue that Genesis 1 is an inspired text with authentic, divine revelation. I am also going to argue that as such, it has a literal sense to which biblical interpreters have to give proper attention. They must do this before proceeding forward to any spiritual senses the text might have. In so doing, it will become evident that this literal sense has nothing to do with any of the distracting concerns of the evolution/intelligent design debate.

The Literal Sense

To begin with, we have to define what we really mean by “reading Genesis 1 literally.” Then we have to distinguish it from strictly literalistic interpretations of the Scriptures. Although they sound very similar, these are not the same thing. By “literal sense,” I am mostly referring to the “Author’s Intended Meaning.” I’ve already discussed this a bit elsewhere.

The truth is, even texts whose authors never intended for them to be read in a woodenly literal manner have a literal sense. Just consider this example from Song of Songs 2:

1I am a rose of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.

2 As a lily among brambles,
    so is my love among maidens.

3 As an apple tree among the trees of the wood,
    so is my beloved among young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
    and his fruit was sweet to my taste

Now, obviously the author of these lines did not intend for us to actually believe that this is all about a botanical love affair between a rose and an apple tree! This text has a rather clear literal sense. Simply put, it is erotic poetry. It uses abundant metaphors to convey its celebration of romantic love. But those symbols convey the author’s intended meaning. Of course, both Jewish and Christian interpreters have reveled in deeper, spiritual interpretations hidden in these words. But those spiritual interpretations depend upon the literal, erotic sense.

How Should We Go about Reading Genesis 1?

Returning to reading Genesis 1, the first thing that we have to acknowledge is that the author’s intended meaning cannot possibly have anything to do with the modern scientific method. This is because he just wasn’t familiar with it. So, there can’t be any kind of evolutionary process described in symbolic terms there. On the other hand, the author isn’t using his own, particular scientific terminology in ancient Hebrew, either. (Baraminology is a particularly egregious attempt to say this sort of thing). No, whatever the author’s intended meaning is, it has nothing to do with science as we conceive of it today.

If the author of Genesis 1 is not intending to say something scientific, what is he trying to say? How would we ever determine that? How should we go about reading Genesis 1?

Clues from Enuma Elish

Our first clue is the fact that Genesis 1 evokes another creation story in unmistakable ways. This story is from ancient Babylon. It is known by its opening line, Enuma Elish, “When on High.”

Now, before I proceed any further, I need to dispense with two widespread misconceptions about Enuma Elish. The first is the very popular idea among skeptics that Genesis 1 is simply a cheap “knock-off” of the Babylonian story. Ever since George Smith widely disseminated a version of Enuma Elish in the nineteenth century under the title Babylonian Genesis this idea has enjoyed popular appeal. But anyone who has carefully read both of the texts will tell you that the differences between them are far more striking than their similarities. No, the author of Genesis 1 is aware of Enuma Elish, and intentionally uses some of the vocabulary and even the cosmology of the text, but all with a mind to subvert its ideology. The result is a piece of literature that transcends its source material in breathtaking ways.

Dispelling Weird, Fundamentalist Ideas about Enuma Elish and Reading Genesis 1

Fundamentalists have also perpetuated some weird ideas about Enuma Elish. I don’t hear this as much as I used to, but some Bible teachers have said that the Babylonian author of Enuma Elish actually had been reading Genesis 1, or maybe was familiar with the traditions that lay behind Genesis 1. I think that it will become apparent why that cannot be the case as I proceed. But let me say here that it is extremely unlikely that anyone in Mesopotamia would want to bother with the religious traditions of the Hebrews.

First of all, there is a serious language divide. Although Hebrew and Akkadian are both Semitic languages, it’s not as though someone from Babylon could pick up a Hebrew text and read it without much difficulty. The differences are substantial. But apart from that, from the perspective of the empires of Assyria and Babylon, Israel was merely a backwater people who posed the annoying problem of occupying some of the most strategic territory in the Levant. There is simply no evidence that anyone from Mesopotamia exhibited any curiosity about the traditions of Israel until the Christian era. If they copied Genesis 1, this would be a remarkably singular incident in ancient history.

All of the evidence points to the influence going in the other direction. Enuma Elish was probably written long before Genesis 1. The author of Genesis 1 seems to have been well-acquainted with it.

Enuma Elish

Utter Chaos

Let me offer a brief summary of Enuma Elish. It begins with utter chaos. Nothing existed in the beginning, not even the gods. Somehow, from the midst of this nothingness the two primeval waters emerged. Abzu, the fresh waters, mingled his waters with Tiamat, the sea. Their union engendered the first gods. These gods had their own children, and so on. Eventually the cosmos was chock-full of rowdy, juvenile deities carrying on and having raucous parties.

The Demise of Abzu

Abzu got irate. He couldn’t get any sleep because his progeny were too noisy. So he and his vizier Mummu conspired to kill all of the gods. Tiamat tried to talk them out of it, but they were too committed to their plan.

Unfortunately for Abzu, one of the gods, named Ea, learned of his plot. He created a counter-plot. With his magic, he slew Abzu. Then he poured him into the well of the earth. He used Mummu as a cork to keep him imprisoned there.

Marduk

Tiamat grieved over Abzu, but soon settled into a new life. That was, until Marduk came along. Marduk, the grandson of Ea, was a precocious young god. Ea doted on him, and gifted him with his very own bag of winds. Marduk loved to take it to the beach and let the winds toss dirt into Tiamat’s waters and whip them into frothy whitecaps. Eventually, she too became irate, and decided to create an army to destroy the gods.

Tiamat Strikes Back

First, she married another monster like herself, a consort named Kingu. And then she proceeded to create one brood of warriors after another. There were scorpion-men and fish-headed men and bull-headed men and mushmahhu dragons. (With venom for blood! Shudder!).

Marduk with a cute, little mushmahhu dragon.
Marduk, with a cute, little mushmahhu dragon.

The Beer Party Counsel of the Gods

Once again, Ea and the gods found out about Tiamat’s plan. But this time, they were genuinely scared. They convened a council. (The description sounds a lot more like a beer party, to be honest). And then they selected Marduk as their champion to march out against Tiamat. Marduk happily volunteered on the condition that the gods would bequeath upon him the power of divine fiat. They did so, and then he tried it out by speaking a star into existence, and then speaking it out of existence. Then he rode forth in his chariot to meet Tiamat.

The Battle Between Tiamat and Marduk

The battle was a bit anticlimactic, actually. With all of her monster-troop behind her, and with Kingu at her side, Tiamat swooped upon Marduk with her maw gaping wide. He released his winds into her jaws, and then, when they had blown her up like a balloon, he shot her with his arrows. Her army immediately surrendered. (He subsequently pressed them into his own service).

Marduk Creates the World

It is at this point that Enuma Elish begins to sound especially familiar to those of us who have read Genesis 1 carefully. Marduk, after slaying his ancestress, considered and decided to construct a cosmos from her corpse. He began by cutting her in half. The top half he took and made the waters that appear above the earth, the sky. The bottom half he poured into the basins of the earth, and they became the sea. And then he proceeded to mold the land that peeked above the waters into the great land masses.

When he had completed his work of creating the earth, he conceived another project. He imagined a life of luxury, with slaves to build things for him whenever he wanted, and to bring him good things to eat. The thing to do was to craft such slaves. And so he took Kingu, Tiamat’s consort, and slit his throat. As his black blood poured out of the gaping wound, he collected it into a bowl. Then, he shaped the blood into lumpy, black-headed people. And that, according to Enuma Elish, is the origin of human beings.

Marduk Enthroned

Enuma Elish concludes with a hymn. The black-head people built Bab-ilani, the “gate of the gods,” and began to worship the deities there. (You have heard of Bab-ilani. You call it “Babylon”). And then they chant the fifty names of Marduk in his temple. This is the real theme of Enuma Elish. It’s all about how Marduk emerged as the great god of Babylon.

Parallels and Differences Between Enuma Elish and Genesis 1

Parallels

There are a huge number of parallels between Enuma Elish and Genesis 1. Let’s list a few of them.

  • Both stories begin with chaos, and conclude with an established order.
  • “Tiamat” is from the same Semitic root as the Hebrew word for “deep,” tehom.
  • A divine wind/spirit blows over the deep in both stories.
  • Both creation stories feature dragons. (In Genesis, the “great sea monsters” of verse 21 are obviously related to Tiamat and her mushmahhu dragons).
  • In both stories, the heavenly waters and seas are sundered from one another and placed in their respective domains in the cosmos.
  • Like Marduk, God has the power of divine fiat.
  • Both stories culminate in liturgy. (Enuma Elish ends with the hymn to Marduk. The creation story in Genesis concludes with the Sabbath.

Differences

The differences between these stories are immediately apparent, as well. By focusing on the differences between Genesis 1 and Enuma Elish, it begins to become evident what the author’s intended meaning was, and how we should go about reading Genesis 1.

The Minor Differences

  • In Genesis, unlike Enuma Elish, the chaos is not primeval. “In the beginning God ….” And God doesn’t have any grandparents, either.
  • The deep and the chaos do not pose any real threat to God. There is no combat. The sea monsters are created by God’s hand.
  • The tehom has been “demythologized.” It is not a deity, but the primary building material for creation. When God divides the waters into sea and sky, it is not a violent act at all.
  • This is somewhat controversial in Old Testament research right now, but I am convinced that the “divine wind” in Genesis 1:2 (Ruach Elohim) is already setting the stage for the fuller revelation of the Holy Spirit. In any case, it is not just a natural wind like the ones in Marduk’s bag. The God of Genesis 1 is not a storm god, but the transcendent and unique Creator God Who reveals Himself to Moses as Being.
  • Marduk has the power of divine fiat, but he doesn’t actually use it to create a dang thing! In contrast, Genesis 1 proclaims that everything is created by the Word of the Lord.

The Major Differences

  • Perhaps the biggest difference in the stories has to do with the creation of humankind. In Genesis, God creates us in His own image and likeness. In Enuma Elish, humans are made from monster blood. Moreover, God does not create humans to be his slaves, as Marduk does. Instead, we are made to be his vassal rulers over the earth.
  • Enuma Elish depicts worship as slavery. The gods are hungry, and it is our duty to feed them. The gods are powerful and fickle, so we lavish praise on them to appease them and keep them happy with us. In contrast, Genesis 1 depicts worship as rest.
  • The purpose of creation in Enuma Elish is a bit of a mystery. It feels a bit as though Marduk does it because he is looking for something to do. But in Genesis, God creates the world as a Temple in which humanity will worship Him. (More on this to come).

Reading Genesis 1 in Light of the Author’s Intended Meaning

So, why would the author intentionally echo so much of Enuma Elish if he ultimately rejects its world-view? I am convinced that the echoes are intentional. He knows that his audience knows the Babylonian account of creation. So he has chosen to subvert it in dramatic ways. His vocabulary and the sweep of the story have just enough in common with Enuma Elish to force us to come to grips with what is wrong with that story. By the power of the Holy Spirit, he has produced a counter-myth that infinitely transcends its “source material” and contradicts it at its most salient points.

I suppose that Genesis 1 was written by a priest exiled to Babylon. We know that Nebuchadnezzar pressed the elite members of Judaean society into his personal college of scribes. (The first chapter of Daniel preserves memories of this indoctrination process). So, this young priest had been forced to learn the very difficult language of Akkadian, probably by copying and re-copying Enuma Elish day in and day out. Eventually, he said, “Enough! This is a lie!” And then he wrote the most beautiful creation account ever composed in protest.

The Unique Revelation in the Literal Reading Genesis 1

Just consider the number of things that God revealed through this anonymous priest and his story of creation.

  • Creation ex nihilo.
  • God’s eternal existence.
  • The very beginnings of Trinitarian theology: God creates everything by the power of His Word and the mysterious participation of the “Spirit of God” blowing over the primeval waters.
  • The astonishing dignity of human beings created in God’s image and likeness.
  • The goodness and purpose of material creation.
  • The identification of worship with rest in and with God.

So, yes, Genesis ought to be interpreted literally. Its authentic message is unparalleled. But that message has nothing to do with science as we conduct it today, and very little to do with history. No, the literal sense of Genesis is a theological statement, and a supreme challenge to the pagan worldview of ancient Babylon … and the pagan worldview of the 21st century.

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The Free-Throw Contest: A Miracle Story

In a previous post, I shared how past experiences of Jesus’ personal care and concern for me had pulled me through a terrible crisis of faith. Here I will share how one particular childhood event imprinted my heart with faith in Jesus. God demonstrated His love for me at the 1988 Thayer Booster Club Fifth Grade Free-Throw Contest.

Leading Up to the Free-Throw Contest: Awkward and Bullied

In the early part of 1988, I was an awkward and annoying eleven-year old boy. I attended this school.

The front of Thayer Schools, where the Miraculous Free-Throw Contest occurred
Thayer Schools, where I attended K-12.

I was a chubby kid who had already chosen to become a religious zealot. Plus, I had something of a martyr-complex that I lovingly nurtured. My Bible was situated proudly on the corner of my desk at school. And I was the self-designated guardian of my classmates’ souls. So, if I thought they were doing something to put themselves in danger of the fires of hell, I let them know about it with pompous self-importance.

They despised me.

And the more despicable I became, the more my martyr-complex blossomed, and the more they despised me.

There were other reasons. I was one of the only children in my class to come from a farm out of town. Also, the eighties were difficult for farmers, so my lower economic status was an obvious target. Moreover, I was not athletic, but bookish and fat, and I did not keep up with the products of popular culture that they were all consuming. I also had weird rituals that I used as coping mechanisms.

But the Bible on the corner of my desk was an unmistakable target.

Bully 1 and Bully 2

There were two classmates (henceforth designated Bully 1 and Bully 2) who could be especially cruel, and who served as ringleaders for the rest of the classroom. In pop culture bullies are usually depicted as social outcasts. This was not the case in my class. My nemeses were the most popular kids in my class. Everyone else fawned over them and basked in whatever positive attention they might shine their direction.

Bully 1 and Bully 2 were, among other things, especially good at sports, especially basketball. They played basketball with each other every afternoon, and often during recess. They were also funny, especially when it came to thinking up a cutting put-down. And I was usually the one on the receiving end for those. For some reason, an aptly timed Bible verse failed to land with as much finesse!

Today I recognize that I was largely responsible for the bullying that I suffered. But at the time, I was simply overwhelmed by the injustice and outrage that I suffered from day to day.

The Announcement of the Free-Throw Contest

On one particularly bad day my classmates had played “Matthew-germs” all through recess. (This was a kind of game of tag based on the premise that someone had accidentally touched me and thus been infected.) This was not so odd, to tell you the truth, but it really hurt on this day. The teasing continued as we made our way into the classroom, because to go back into the building we had to line up. My classmates fought with each other over who had to stand next to me. They didn’t want Matthew-germs. Finally, we got back to our desks, and there was a bit of respite from the bullying. Before we started the next lesson, my teacher told us we had a special guest.

My youth minister, Jeff Davis, stepped into our classroom. He was carrying a box. Jeff put it on the teacher’s desk, and passed out flyers, the kind with the original clip-art that you did with a photocopying machine. He wanted us to know about an upcoming basketball tournament and free-throw contest that the Thayer Booster Club was sponsoring. He opened the box, and pulled out a trophy. To entice us to sign up, he had gotten real trophies!

Winning the Free-Throw Contest an Impossibility

Before he left, he made eye contact with me and nodded. I knew that he was encouraging me to sign up. Jeff had enthusiastically supported my Bible-to-school habit. He was impressed with how well I knew the Scriptures. He invested a lot of time in me, routinely inviting me to help with things at church or the local church camp. The first time that I ever got up in a pulpit was because of his prompting. Sometimes he asked me to write something for the church newsletter. Now he wanted me to represent Thayer Christian Church in the free-throw contest. He didn’t have to spell it out.

Unfortunately, I was terrible at basketball. Living in the country, I had very little opportunity to play with anyone. And I would have much preferred to sit down with a book than to go to the shed and shoot hoops into the basket my father had set up for me. I knew that winning that trophy was impossible.

My classmates knew it, as well. As Jeff walked out of the room, the ones who had desks around Bully 1 and Bully 2 high-fived them. We all knew that one of them would get the first place trophy, and the other would get the second place trophy.

The Prayer

On the bus-ride home, I began, for the first time ever in my life, to pray in a frank manner. I told God exactly how I felt. The conversation went something like this: “God, I’ve been doing all kinds of things for the sake of your name. I bring my Bible to school every day and try really hard not to sin. When I see my classmates sinning, I warn them of Your approaching judgement. I obey my parents. I take care of my sisters. And so far, I don’t see how this has gotten me one single thing. In fact, about the only thing that it has ever done for me is give my classmates something else to make fun of me for.”

“God, some days I wonder if You even exist. I read in Your Bible about all of these miraculous signs of Your care and concern for the children of Israel. But I’ve never seen anything like that in my own life. Sometimes I wonder if it’s not just all made up.”

I got off the bus, ran up the hill to my house, and ran downstairs to my room. I picked up my basketball. And then I offered God a challenge. “God, if you love me, I want you to prove it.” With tears streaming down my face, I prayed, “God, if you really love me, make me win that free-throw contest.”

And then, for a week, I didn’t think about it.

The Basketball Tournament

But then, on that horrible, gray, Sunday afternoon in the middle of winter, the hour of reckoning arrived. I was sick to my stomach. But I had signed up. There was no getting out of it. I was silent as my parents drove me to the gym.

My team got demolished in the basketball tournament. I had never played in an actual basketball game. Neither had anyone else on my team. The referee was quickly exasperated with us for walking with the ball and throwing it out of bounds. The only thing that I really remember is throwing the ball to the one classmate who was kind of like a friend to me in those days, another farm-kid like me. As soon as he saw the ball hurling towards him through the air, he threw his arms around his head and turned his back to it. So the ball bounced off of his back into the waiting arms of Bully 2. He passed it to Bully 1 for an easy lay-up.

The Basketball Tournament: The Aftermath

After the game, I heard the father of my friend screaming at him in the hallway. My own father just hung his head in shame, and could barely even look at me. It is hard to describe just how important local athletics were for small-town farming communities like mine in the eighties. A few years earlier, our high school basketball team had taken the 1A state championship. Thayer took basketball seriously. Our losing team could taste the searing disappointment.

But there was no time to wallow in our defeat. The free-throw contest would soon be underway.

The Free-Throw Contest

When the dreaded hour came, I took my place at the end of the line. I was not excited about participating in this contest. I remembered my prayer. But it all seemed so foolish and vain right now. Why should God be concerned about a fifth-grade free-throw contest in Thayer, Kansas?

In the first round, about half of my classmates fell out, and took a seat at the side of the gym. Bullies 1 and 2 nailed their shots, as expected. All too soon, it was time for me to take my own shot. Better to just get it over with, and wither under my father’s disapproval on the way home. But, once again, I remembered the prayer. And so, I did something really odd. If God was going to give me this victory to prove His love for me, I wanted it to be indisputable. So I closed my eyes.

I did not open them until I heard the “swoosh,” and then, to my deep surprise, cheering from the bleachers. Beyond all hope and expectation, I had made my first shot! With my eyes closed!

There is not much more to relate. The next two or three rounds eliminated almost all of my classmates. Each time, my shot hit home. Soon, it was just the two Bullies and me left to duke it out.

The Free-Throw Contest: Victory

Mainly, I remember two things about the conclusion of the contest. First, I remember that it took several more nerve-wracking rounds. My accuracy was astonishing. Second, I remember how thrilled I was when it was just Bully 1 and me left to compete for the gold trophy. I was honestly delighted at the thought that I would get a silver trophy at the very least. And had that happened, I probably would have still been convinced that it was a miracle.

Come to think of it, I do remember a few other things. I remember how excited the crowd was getting. People began to cheer for me by name. For someone who had resigned himself to being a “loser” for the rest of his days, this was remarkable … and weird. I didn’t exactly like it. Bully 2 also began crying when he missed his shot. I have to confess, I did like that quite a bit.

The miracle trophy that I won, by God's grace, in the 1988 Thayer Booster Club Free-Throw Contest.
Here it is: the free-throw trophy. Strange and tangible evidence of God’s grace in my life.

In a few more rounds, it was over. I was victorious. The crowd rushed the court. I got a shiny trophy. And then, I was given an opportunity to share the story of God’s love for me.

The Free-Throw Contest Miracle: Concrete Evidence of God’s Love for Me

There are many, many things about God and His dealings with us that I will never understand. I don’t know why He let’s bad things happen to good people. I’m not at all sure why I’ve received so many precious graces that I know have been denied others. And even in my own day to day life, I have plenty of experiences that cause me to pause and doubt God’s goodness, and even His existence. But there is no denying that in 1988, a strange, overweight kid put God to the test, and instead of smiting the son-of-a-gun right then and there for his overweening gall, God gave this little kid what he really needed, a miracle. He helped me win a free-throw contest.

On bad, bad days, I look at this free-throw contest trophy, and I remember God’s faithfulness to me as a child. And I know I can trust Him to remain faithful to the end of my adult-hood, as well.

Epilogue

The next year, I made myself sick with anxiety before that year’s free-throw contest. My farm-kid friend who got hit in the back with the basketball won that year. Bully 1 had to settle for a silver trophy again. Bully 2 still doesn’t have one.