I read the book, Thousands Not Billions, which is edited by Don DeYoung. It provides a summary of the RATE project which was a project performed by young earth creationists who did research regarding the age of the earth. A Hebrew scholar by the name of Stephen Boyd was a part of the RATE project. Boyd studied Genesis 1:1 - 2:3 in order to see if that biblical passage should be interpreted as a literal historical narrative or as poetry. Boyd analyzed the relative distribution of finite verbs in that passage. In biblical Hebrew, there are four finite verb forms: preterite, imperfect, perfect, and waw-perfect (p. 160). Historical narratives in Hebrew uses more preterite verbs while poetic texts use more perfect and imperfect verbs (p. 161). Boyd's conclusion was that Genesis 1:1 - 2:3 is statistically classified as narrative with a probability of 0.9999 (pp. 167-168). A probability of 1 would be the highest value.

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Curt Hayashida
member, Community Bible Church (Non-denominational)
Vallejo, CA