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Originally Posted by AV1611  I think that you are missing the point, whether yom means 24 hours is wholly irrelevant to the message of Genesis 1-2. The sequence is thematic (and polemical) not chronological. Oh, and I agree yom does mean 24 hours or at least thereabouts. |
So if the scholars can prove the existence of a passion story in Mark's Gospel, or an apology for Christianity in the Acts of the Apostles, will this render these narratives any less historical? Surely not.
The scholarly assumption that theme negates history is not based on the "truth" nature of divine revelation, but emerges from a comparison of uninspired literature in which historical fact is sacrificed on the altar of ideology. It occurs to me that were Genesis 1 proven to be any thing less than history, then its theological value would be null and void, because its thematic message would be reduced to the same quality as the creation accounts of the Cannaanites, Babylonians, Assyrians, or Egyptians -- mere propaganda.
The historicity of our faith is what makes it a true faith. The Bible does not only teach us about the nature of God in the abstract, but reveals to us what God has done in real time and space. In other words, the Bible gives us truth for our time, for the real world in which we live. Remove the historic element from the quality of truth, and truth becomes irrelevant or relative.
In reformed biblical theology, the starting point is act-revelation; this is followed by word-revelation, which explains the nature and significance of God's mighty acts. 1 Cor. 10:11, "these things happened unto them for ensamples" -- act-revelation; "and were written for our admonition" -- word revelation. This is the fundamental starting point of reformed exegesis. No interpretation of holy writ should be accepted which does not start with the basic belief that "these things happened."
What is written in Gensis 1-11 is history. In the OT, the Lord enourages and comforts His people concerning their future deliverance in terms of what He did at creation and the flood; but the NT especially draws numerous lessons from this section of Scripture, proceeding on the fundamental belief that "these things happened." God commanded light to shine out of darkness, made the earth stand out of the water and in the water, created them male and female, made man a living soul, made the Sabbath for man, joined together the man and woman, Eve was beguiled by the serpent, Cain slew Abel, Enoch was the seventh from Adam, Noah built an ark to the saving of his house. The credibility of the NT in terms of conveying absolute "truth" is severely undermined if these things did not in point of fact happen as the NT claims.