Interpreting Genesis 1-11

ABSTRACT

Basic Issues

When seeking to understand what we read we need to ask some basic questions.

• What kind of language is being used? The prose/poetry distinction is the most obvious one, but there are different kinds of prose.
• What kind of literature is it? Every culture has its 'genres' of literature, which most people within the culture recognise intuitively.
• For what purpose was it written? Genre can guide us here, but so can a knowledge of the historical and cultural context of the text.

When interpreting the Bible we also need to take into account our doctrine of God. The God of the Bible is the God of both revelation and creation. We therefore cannot ignore truth from extra-biblical sources when interpreting the Bible. The God of the Bible is the God of the Incarnation. God spoke to people in their own context. The Bible comes to us as God's word expressed in the words of particular human authors, using particular human languages and forms of literature.

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

What kind of language? It is neither ordinary Hebrew prose nor ordinary Hebrew poetry. It is 'elevated prose', such as is often used in religious liturgies. The language is sometimes clearly 'the language of appearance' (e.g. 'the two great lights'). Taking it 'literally' sometimes creates 'errors' ('firmament', 'lights').

What kind of literature? The structure of the passage suggests that it is a 'logical' account of God's activity, not a 'chronological' one. This, plus the nature of the language, suggests that it is a piece of symbolic prose, an extended 'figure of speech' depicting God's creation as the archetypal piece of work.

What is its purpose? Comparison with other ancient Near-Eastern creation stories suggests that it is a 'theological polemic' setting out the Hebrew theology of creation over against others, e.g. the use of 'to create', 'lights', 'image/likeness'.

The Flood Story

This is written in ordinary Hebrew prose. It has many similarities with the Mesopotamian Flood Stories, which are clearly concerned with religious and social issues, not geology. There are indications that the flood depicted is a local one: Gen. 2:10f; Gen. 10; 'erets' normally means 'land' in a limited sense; 'all' and Semitic hyperbole.

Revd. Dr. Ernest C. Lucas