Literal Vs. Literal Approach Essay

Creation stories are symbolic accounts of how the world and its inhabitants came about. These stories first developed in oral traditions, so there are multiple accounts of them from different cultures and societies. The Babylonian Creation story, the Genesis Creation story, and the Sumerian story of the Creation of Enkidu are examples of these and the similarities are interesting. As Dennis Bratcher states, “Because of many parallels with the Genesis account, some historians concluded that the Genesis account was simply a rewriting of the Babylonian Story. As a reaction, many who wanted to maintain the uniqueness of the Bible argues either that there were no real parallels between the accounts or that the Genesis narratives were

The Bible was originally written in Hebrew by a series of many authors around the time of 1450-1410 BC (Holy Bible, Scofield). Moses who wrote Genesis, supposedly received direct information from God himself about how the world and man were created. This is the first point of interpretation because there is a need to have blind faith in Moses. There are many stories in Genesis that seem absurd and hard to believe really happened, unless you are someone who believes in the power of God and has this blind faith. For example, God gives Adam and Eve a garden and says not to take the fruit from one tree and when they eat the fruit from that tree, God punishes them, “Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life” (1:17, Gen). From a figurative standpoint we can

The human scribes who wrote down the events of Genesis were recording the events of the world as God created it. However, while they were inspired by divine events, these authors were humans influenced by the outside considerations that all human writers incorporate into their works, no matter how important or trivial the concepts. In this case, the writers would have been very much aware of the presence and content of other, parallel creation stories with similar historical and even religious tropes.

In the Bible book of Genesis chapters one through eleven is the story of the creation of the natural world, human identity, human relationships, and civilization. This is a story created by God, written by Moses and lived out by everyone, believers and nonbelievers. The first eleven chapters of Genesis do not set out to prove the existence of God, as some are trying to do today. These chapters simply put Him at the center of everything. The beginning of Genesis contains the account of creation, the fall of mankind into sin, procreation leading to civilization, the flood to bring about the re-creation, and finally the culminating account of man marveling in his own effort - the Tower of Babel. All of which creates the foundation of theology and the Christian’s worldview of how God intended things to function in our world. Genesis also forms a foundation for other religious and secular morals which aid in forming a worldview. By placing God at the center of everything, He creates the moral foundational worldview for cultures around the globe. In his book, The Universe Next Door, James W. Sire describes worldview as essentially this: “A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, … about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides

1. Chapters one through three of Genesis are very historic in the Bible. I know the whole Bible is historic, but the first chapters of Genesis are essential to Christianity. These chapters touch base on the six days of creation, the things that are on the Earth today, and how sin entered the world. In chapter one, God is the supreme creator of the Heavens and Earth. The Earth today is inhabited by the human race, but before creation is was surrounded in darkness. The first thing God did was create light and separate it from the darkness. God was developing the Earth day to day by adding creatures, plants, food, etc. Eventually in six days,the Earth was finished in the sight of God. Although, something was still missing from God's view. The

Christians today have a biblical principle and opinion of the universe existence. Christians believe that God created earth and that he accomplished that in only six days. Genesis 1 explains the creation and the interpretation is so utterly clear and one writer states “Thus, any interpretation that goes beyond a clear plain meaning of the text is considered to compromise Biblical authority and capitulate to evolutionary theories”. One look at the Young Earth View is said to be formed from the Modern English

Although this literal interpretation of the Bible does leave very little room for coexistence with evolutionary beliefs, practitioners of Theistic Evolution argue that several aspects of the Bible (or, more particularly, the Book of Genesis) cannot be taken literally. The primary reason for this theory is that the Book of Genesis has a major flaw: it states that God did not make the sun until the Fourth Day. The sun determines time because the sun is visible during daytime and not visible at night. The Christian theologian Augustine first called this shocking detail to widespread attention in the fifth century. Augustine also went on to theorize that God "made all things together, disposing them in an order based not on intervals of time but on causal connections." Both Augustine and modern practitioners of theistic evolution have pointed out that this minute flaw proves that time intervals in the Bible cannot be taken literally; which proves that Christianity and Evolution do not necessarily negate each other in regards to historical time spans. Augustine also pointed out the possibility that some things were made in fully developed form and others were made in "potential form" that developed over time to the condition in which they are seen today. Augustine may have been a Christian theologian of ancient times, but his opinions and viewpoints often coincide with

Throughout Genesis 1-11, one of the main subjects covered is the natural world. Genesis 1 in particular provides crucial information for understanding the origin of the natural world. In the first verse of the entire Bible (Genesis 1:1), the reader is immediately told that “God created the heavens and the earth.” Additionally, the reader is informed that “there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31), showing that God’s work of creation took six days. Because I believe that God created the world in six literal days, the foundation of my worldview is entirely different than the foundation of an atheist’s worldview. When I look at the world around me, I do not view everything around me as the product of random chance and evolution; instead, I see everything around me as the handiwork of God.

Properly dating the book of Genesis would allow us to build a timeline of creation which we can be used to trace back to day one of creation. However, this is extremely difficult to determine for two fundamental reasons: (1) the Bible provides no controllable statis- tical data that apply to the problem of absolute chronology; (2) most of the events took place in the preliterate period for which we have no extrabiblical written documents. (Ch. 1 Pg. 28)

Chapter 1 where verses 1-5 can be found tells that God created the heavens, the earth, and everything that lives. These verses explain that God was the first and only creator. However Genesis later describes a lot more about the creation of the earth. After verses 1-5 in chapter 1 we learn that God continues creating by making humankind in his image and also giving them charge over the earth. We also learn that after the first day of creation in verses 1-5, God continues creating for a total of seven days. After God initially created the earth and light, God on the second day created the sky. On the third day, dry land was created. The fourth day he created the sun, moon, and stars. On the fifth day he created every living creature. The sixth day he made animals and human beings in his own image to commune with them. On the last day God rested and blessed it making his creation holy. At the end of Genesis chapter 1 God had created everything and it was perfect. I think that verses 1-5 fit perfectly with the rest of the chapter because they give a good insight was to how the chapter will continue. They also are very consistent in that they don’t make any drastic changes in the later verses. Verses 1-5 also contribute to the rest of the chapter by setting a starting point for what would be happening and how God would be acting. In this context, my interpretation of these passages helps me to

In Genesis, the first book of The Bible the Christian and Jewish creation story is told. God spoke and his Word was done. He made the heavens and the earth. He made light and drove away the dark. On the earth he created the waters and lands and man and beast.

As Genesis is the first book of the bible and verses 1:1-2:3 are the first accounts, it is essential that the story that proceeds be examined. What is then discovered is another account about creation. This creation story is similar to the first account but it can be seen that God ‘is not working to a pre-planned strategy’ , this then ‘hints at a measure of vulnerability in the Creator’ in the second creation account which is a stark difference to the first story of creation where God is viewed as ‘is a king who does all things well: in his own judgement, it is 'very good'. He alone is responsible for creation: his voice alone is heard; he consults no one for wisdom or advice’ . Incorporating the world behind the text and the world of the text we are able to get a more cohesive experience about what the story is telling us, in this case what Genesis 1:1-2:3 is actually referring to. The tools used to analyse the text allows the audience to develop greater insight about the purpose of the text, it also allows the audience to change their previous viewpoint with integrated gained depth and

Creation is seen in Christianity as a sacred story that explains not how, but why people exist in this universe. Depending on the sect of Christianity, it is taken literally, or it is seen as a story that teaches the lesson of their god’s great love for mankind. Christians

Throughout history many civilizations and cultures have had their own ways of explaining the world and its creation. Each of these civilizations has created unique descriptions and accounts of such events. However, when comparing them to each other, are they really different? Look at the ancient Greco - Roman creation myths as told by Hesiod in his Theogony and Works and Days and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, when compared to the creation myths as seen in the Old Testament’s book of Genesis they may not be as different as one would think. Taking a more in-depth look at both Genesis and Hesiod’s and Ovid’s work more closely, the reader can see that on multiple occasions the myths have almost identical similarities which reflect their views in

The book of Genesis is often referred to as the book of beginnings. Genesis is the first book that begins the Old Testament, it is also the first book of the entire Bible. The Lord also began the world in the book of Genesis, He made the heavens and the earth, man and woman. In Genesis chapters one through eleven, the Bible teaches us stories that most of us have grown up hearing in Sunday School such as the creation account, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood and the tower of Babel. In this book of beginnings, we are shown some of Gods characteristics; we see that God is love and He showed His love by creating us and the world, on the other extreme, we also see the wrath of God. Through these teachings, we are able to see that God ultimately in control and holds everything in His balance. The stories of Genesis aren’t just stories; they are real life accounts that can help build and shape a worldview on things regarding the natural world, human identity, human relationships and civilization.