This Question was asked recently:
Suppose God were attempting to convey that the days of creation were six literal days. Never mind if that were possible, imaginable or feasible. That is what He is trying to say. How should God have instructed Moses to write it – what manner of words should He have used – to make that point clear?
(Editorial Note: this is a common tactic by young earth folks to try to get you to say that God would have communicated 6 day creation in JUST the way that he did, and that therefore it is safe to interpret Genesis 1 as a literal historical, and scientific account.)
My Answer… in a creative dialog between God and Moses:
God: Hey Moses…
Moses: Hey God!
God: Ok, Moses I want to tell you something, and it’s kind of a Big deal so we’ll have to get a few things straight first. Is that ok?
Moses: sure thing
God: First I want to tell you about this thing called “History” that hasn’t been invented yet….
Moses: Ok, what’s history?
God: “History” is a way of talking about events where each aspect of the story conveys the literal, face value, facts and events. There is no mythic language, there is little role for symbolism, there is no chaiastic reworking of the structure, poetic parallelism, or creative redaction of other peoples works or myths .
Moses: That sounds really boring! How would anyone ever communicate truth if all they were able to do is list facts!
God: I know it sounds boring… but it can actually be really interesting, and useful for helping people create honest pictures of peoples and cultures that are not their own, or to reconnect people to their own cultural history.
Moses: Ok God, I’ll take your word for it… so what do you want to tell me in this genre called “history”?
God: I want to tell you this history of how the earth was made…
Moses: Just the facts?
God: Just the facts!
Moses: ok I’m listening…
God: I made the earth in 6 days… each day I made something new…. light, then air and sea… then dry ground… then the moon sun and stars…. then fish and birds… then ground animals and people like you… all said and done it took me 144 hours.
Moses: Are you sure that’s history? It kind of sounds like some of the myths I’ve heard around from some of my neighbors, are you sure you didn’t take the myths and language that people here know and understand and present part of your own identity in a subversive and imaginative reweaving of the cultic mythology of the region?
God: Nope… I wanted to give you the facts in a genre that you wouldn’t understand that is bereft of the structures and languages that you use to determine meaning in a text…
Moses:…. um no offense but… that’s kind of silly God
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