Genesis 1 as Myth

I had my attention drawn today to an article by Howard Bess, a retired American Baptist minister. The title is “Rethinking the Genesis Message.” Here’s a sample:

Genesis 1 is the Israelite response to chaos and endless war.

In the Genesis 1 myth, the Israelite God confronts a world that is without form and is engulfed in darkness. In modern language, the earth was chaotic beyond useful function. So God sets out to do something about chaos and the useless nature of the world. Simply by speaking, the Israelite God made light, vegetation, animal life and finally human life. God’s world was to be a place of plenty and robust life. As God completed his actions, he paused periodically and said that what he was doing was good.

This alternative reading of Genesis 1 and understanding Genesis 1 as myth were for me a marvelous discovery. I could let science do its work, while I was given a new vision of what my life as a religious person was to be about. Jesus and Paul affirmed the message that evil/chaos is never to be fought but overcome with the doing of good.

See also his earlier article “Genesis Myth: God Doing Good.”

I will simply add that the opponents of science and promoters of pseudoscience are at war with order and allies of chaos, and so take upon themselves precisely the opposite role to God in the Genesis 1 myth. If someone has ears to hear, let them hear.