{"id":20220,"date":"2011-09-12T00:07:36","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T05:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=20220"},"modified":"2011-09-12T06:30:18","modified_gmt":"2011-09-12T11:30:18","slug":"seven-days-that-divide-the-world-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/12\/seven-days-that-divide-the-world-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Days that Divide the World 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

One of the most interesting books I read in the last few years is Wheaton professor John Walton\u2019s The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. Reduced to two points, Walton argues that Genesis 1 is not about the origins of materials (like creating light out of nothing) but ordering of materials into functions so they fit into God\u2019s ordered system for the cosmos; that\u2019s the first point of his book. The second makes clear what this \u201corder\u201d is all about: the cosmos is designed by God to be God\u2019s cosmic temple. So, the book argues Genesis 1 is about a \u201cfunctional ontology\u201d and the created order is designed to put everything in its proper place of God\u2019s cosmic temple. It\u2019s an impressive, wide-ranging, and suggestive study. John Walton\u2019s got a big academic book, which was behind this more popular version, coming out very soon from Eisenbrauns so many of the concerns or questions will be answered when we can all read the fuller explanations of each point.<\/p>\n

Until then though some will be offering criticisms, including John Lennox, professor in Mathematics at Oxford, in Lennox\u2019s new book, Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. I began a series on Lennox\u2019s book a bit ago and want to jump to an appendix in the book because it takes on Walton and, since I just taught Walton\u2019s book, I wanted to see what Lennox had to say.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In essence, he doesn\u2019t agree with Walton. I\u2019m not persuaded his first major criticism, dealing with Walton\u2019s points about function, are as clear as he could have been but I will do my best to present Lennox\u2019s study as clearly as possible.<\/p>\n

What do you think of Lennox\u2019s criticisms of Walton? And, what do you think of Walton\u2019s two big points above?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lennox thinks Genesis 1 is better explained as the creation of materials and not just the \u201ccreation\u201d or establishment of functions of previously existing matter. Then he discusses several items \u2014 \u201cheaven and earth\u201d and \u201cgreat sea creatures\u201d and \u201chuman beings\u201d \u2014 and says these are matters. But I\u2019m not sure he sees what I see in Walton when it comes to the meaning of function. Walton sees a tapestry in which each item must be understood in terms of the whole, while Lennox wants to separate the items and see each in its own verse. A big distinction for Walton is \u201cfunctions\u201d in Days 1-3 and \u201cfunctionaries\u201d in Days 4-6, so that to say \u201chuman beings\u201d are material misses the point that they are the culmination of the functions as those who are the functionaries, esp for what is created on Day 3. By atomizing the elements it appears to me Lennox misses the tapestry into which the items fit. The big picture is cosmic temple; the items are designed within that system; humans too.<\/p>\n

It is true that Walton\u2019s book does not establish or develop in detail what bara<\/em>\/\u201dcreate\u201d meant when he says it concerns not so much materials but functions, and I saw that when I read this book \u2014 but at that time I knew John had a bigger book in the works (and it was the basis for this one) and I said, \u201cI can wait to see if he can prove that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Lennox pushes Hebrews 1\u2019s and John 1\u2019s creation expressions into Walton\u2019s thesis, and concludes that Walton\u2019s thesis for Genesis 1 doesn\u2019t fit the overall creation theology of the Bible. Well, I\u2019d say \u2014 even as a NT scholar \u2014 I\u2019d want to be careful about pushing either John 1 or Hebrews 1 onto the page of Genesis 1 because there\u2019s no reason they authors all need to be talking about the same thing. So, for me, those two texts don\u2019t count. What does count, is what Genesis 1 means in the ancient near east. Lennox offers nothing by way of rebuttal from that world.<\/p>\n

Nor is Lennox convinced of the cosmic temple hypothesis: he doesn\u2019t think Walton establishes his case for Genesis 1 being the creation of the cosmos as a cosmic temple. Folks connect Genesis 1-2\/3 to Exodus 39. He pushes Walton for not citing sufficient evidence, and again \u2014 yes \u2014 but Walton\u2019s got the big academic approach coming out. Oddly, Lennox doesn\u2019t like that Walton uses Isa 66:1-2 since it comes from a later date, which didn\u2019t stop Lennox from using Hebrews 1 and John 1 against Walton in the previous point. It\u2019s methodological and it\u2019s historical. 1 Kings 8:27 is mentioned too, and Lennox is unpersuaded. Lennox then says these texts press materiality, but again \u2014 if one says the cosmos is a temple \u2014 we are not talking materiality so much as functionality since it functions as a grand metaphorical perception of the cosmos itself. Lennox flat-out surprised me when he said God doesn\u2019t actually take up residence in the temple at the end of Genesis 1, but instead it is humans. Isn\u2019t the whole point that humans are \u201cimages\u201d and at least in part God\u2019s representatives, and then isn\u2019t the point that God dwells among us by setting up humans as his presence?<\/p>\n

Lennox\u2019s next point is about the significance of the seventh day and here is where I struggled most with what Lennox was on about. Walton emphasizes the focal point of God dwelling among us (through the image-bearers, what I call eikons) on the seventh day, and Walton sees Days 1-7 as the inauguration of God\u2019s dwelling among us. Lennox scatters questions that don\u2019t matter to what Walton is saying here. He wonders which days and which weeks and what inauguration means \u2026 connects this to Sabbath and says that it was materiality. Well, what I see in Walton is a week that comes to completion in the 7th day, and it is the \u201cfirst\u201d week of all \u2014 the primal week \u2014 and that\u2019s what inauguration means.<\/p>\n

His next concern has to do mostly with whether or not God revealed to Israelites cosmological details that were unknowable at the time. I agree with Walton in the main; it gets me nervous to see some people read the Bible suggesting that God revealed things to ancient Israelite about cosmology that no one understood then \u2014 and sometimes haven\u2019t understood until our time. But Walton says that nothing updated their scientific understanding, and this perhaps overdoes it \u2026 and it might just be easier to say \u201cWhat is in the Bible is in accordance with contemporary perceptions of the cosmos.\u201d He seems to set Lennox off to prove that at least somethings transcended ancient perceptions, which really in the end doesn\u2019t change whether or not Genesis 1 is ancient cosmology. Lennox explores the conclusion of Edwyn Bevan and Andrew Parker, who concluded divine inspiration of Scripture through study of history and science and an uncanny accuracy in the Bible.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most interesting books I read in the last few years is Wheaton professor John Walton\u2019s The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate. Reduced to two points, Walton argues that Genesis 1 is not about the origins of materials (like creating light out of nothing) but ordering of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[456],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible"],"yoast_head":"\nSeven Days that Divide the World 2<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the most interesting books I read in the last few years is Wheaton professor John Walton's The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/12\/seven-days-that-divide-the-world-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seven Days that Divide the World 2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the most interesting books I read in the last few years is Wheaton professor John Walton's The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/12\/seven-days-that-divide-the-world-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-12T05:07:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-09-12T11:30:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/files\/2011\/09\/Screen-shot-2011-09-02-at-8.06.03-PM-300x298.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/12\/seven-days-that-divide-the-world-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/12\/seven-days-that-divide-the-world-2\/\",\"name\":\"Seven Days that Divide the World 2\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-12T05:07:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-09-12T11:30:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"One of the most interesting books I read in the last few years is Wheaton professor John Walton's The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/12\/seven-days-that-divide-the-world-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/12\/seven-days-that-divide-the-world-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/12\/seven-days-that-divide-the-world-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Seven Days that Divide the World 2\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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