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  • From: "Ishinan" <ishinan AT comcast.net>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] ] A VISUAL EXPRESSION OF A THEOLOGICAL IDEA OF THESKY/HEAVEN ( Rolf's Response 4)
  • Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2012 15:45:04 -0500



Dear Jerry,

I am surprised that you find that the creation account begins with chaos. The
word "chaos" itself is often used as a mythological catchword, so the word
has a negative load in itself.

In Genesis 1:1, the account starts with God's creation of the heavens and the
earth—no chaos here. How do these words fit modern science? (I would like to
stress that I do not view the creation account as a scientific paper, but in
contrast to most others I would see if the account fit a scientific setting.)
The creator is in the Tanakh described as without beginning. This accords
with the first law of thermodynamics about energy conservation: Energy can
be transformed into matter, and matter into energy, but we cannot destroy
either of them. This accords with the view that something is or can be
without beginning. The statement about the creation of the universe accords
with the second law of thermodynamics: The entropy (disorder) of a closed
system will always increase. The decomposition of radioactive isotopes shows
that the universe had a beginning. The same is true with its way towards its
heath death, where no thermodynamic free energy will exist. So, the first
verse of Genesis has no mythological traits, but it accords fully with modern
science. The creation of the heavens and the earth is undated, and the
accound do not contradict the age of the universe given by scientists.

But what about the first creation account in Enuma Elish? Is it mythical, or
does it accord with modern science:

I quote from http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Dr-Fi/Enuma-Elish.html#b

"Enuma Elish tells how the Babylonian deities were born from a primeval
goddess named Tiamat, a vast ocean of formless chaos, sometimes described as
a dragon. Marduk, the patron god of the city of Babylon, defeated Tiamat and
her army of monsters. He then divided her corpse into two parts, one of which
became heaven and one earth. He also killed Tiamat's ally, Kingu, and created
human beings from Kingu's blood to serve the gods. Marduk's victory brought
order to the universe."

Does this accord with mordern science, or are the descriptions purely
mythical?

As already mentioned, the Genesis creation account begins with the creation
of the universe. In 1:2 we do not see everything's beginning in chaos, But as
JPS render it: "the earth being unformed and void." The earth was covered
with a great amount of water (THWM), and it was dark.God could now start its
creation process with earthly things. Let me again stress: 1:2 is not the
beginning, but a stage in the process of creation! An interestingly, that the
earth a long time ago was covered with water is not contradicted by the view
of modern science. Those believing in organic avolution starts with a
primeval ocean.

I will not proceed further in the discussion of the creation account. But to
all those interested, please do a detailed comparision of the creation
accounts of Enuma Elish and Genesis 1 and 2, and see for yourself.


Best regards,


Rolf Furuli
Stavern
Norway



Onsdag 5. September 2012 01:32 CEST skrev Jerry Shepherd
<jshepherd53 AT gmail.com>:


Hi All,

Contributing to this discussion again, I'd like to reiterate that a lot of
the opposition to George, Yigal, Nir, and myself has focused on what are
considered by some to be merely isolated mythological elements within a
literal account. But I think it is important to note that we are not
talking about individual pieces of the account, but rather, its whole
orientation. The entire account is of a piece with the cosmological
orientation of the ANE. Just like other ANE accounts, the Genesis 1
narrative begins with chaos, without feeling the need to explain where that
chaos came from. The first three days of creation, then, describe the
process by which God brought order out of that chaos, turning disorder into
order: separating between day and night, separating between waters above
the sky (vault, dome) and waters below the sky, and separating between
waters below and the dry land. In the flood narrative, then, this ordered
creation, returns to the chaotic conditions of 1:2, the rejoining of the
waters above the sky (the floodgates of the heavens opening up) to the
waters below the sky (the springs of the great deep), the water covering
the dry land, and the inevitable confusion of day and night which these
conditions would cause. As the waters finally recede, things return to
their created state at the end of Genesis 1, thus yielding the pattern of
creation, de-creation, re-creation

To be sure, the ancients were keen observers of the sun, moon, stars, and
planets (travelers). But these astronomical observations were still made
within an orientation that was both flat-earth (though aware that there was
some curvature), and earth-centered (geocentric). They were not
Copernicans before Copernicus. And this goes for the entire Old Testament.

For those who have theological concerns, this is, of course, not a
theological forum. But I would add that, at least within my theological
tradition, this understanding of Gen 1 does nothing to detract from my own
confession of God as creator. Rather, it accords nicely with my
understanding that God has revealed himself both progressively and
accommodatively, and that the Scriptures are both a divine and human text.

Blessings,

Jerry Shepherd
Taylor Seminary
Edmonton, Alberta


Jerry Shepherd
jshepherd53 AT gmail.com
_______________________________________________




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