From The Vault: One Thing Genesis Isn’t

For any reader of the Bible one of the primary tools for interpretation is genre identification. Genre identification will significantly affect a reader’s interpretation and application of a text. For example, if we literally read Jesus’ commandment, “if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away;” we would have churches full of left-handed people.

In a compilation of books with a variety of different forms we cannot read a psalm (O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit 30:3) the same way we would read a proverb (Do not answer fools according to their folly, or you will be a fool yourself. Answer fools according to their folly, or they will be wise in their own eyes 26:4-5). We cannot read the Gospels or epistles with the same set of reader assumptions that we would Revelation. Metaphor, simile, irony, parable, apocalyptic, historiography, and context are just a very few of the lenses that we use concerning any given text.

This is most likely the obvious part for many reading this: false genre identification can lead to all sorts of interpretive issues. This may seem obvious but it is something that is often transgressed by many. Think how America’s prosperity cult twists texts that have nothing to do with money, or the charismatic approach to Daniel and Revelation.

Therefore, it is the point of this post to help you in the genre identification of Genesis. I’m not going to tell you what it is, but I am going to tell you what it isn’t. This is important because at the end of the day you can never get the right answer to the wrong question. It’s kind of like asking, “What’s the square root of blue?” You can never, ever get the right answer to the wrong question. So with out further delay the one thing that Genesis isn’t:

A modern science textbook.

Now before anyone gets antsy and starts creating arguments in their mind to what I have not written understand that because Genesis is not a modern science textbook that does not mean that evolutionism is one hundred percent “right” and the Bible is “wrong” or that the world is old and not young. These are questions I will not attempt to answer. But that still does not change the fact that Genesis is not a modern science textbook. Let me give you an example.

Three Reformation church fathers dealt with a situation in their time in which they made the mistake of treating the Bible like a modern science textbook. Two you may know: Jean Calvin and Martin Luther. One may be more obscure: Philipp Melanchthon. During their time Christians held what is called a geocentric concept of the universe; the earth being at the center of the universe because it was observable and clearly taught in God’s Holy word. The competing scientific view of this is termed heliocentrism which is the sun being at the center of the universe, and while there were other persons besides them, Copernicus and Galileo were central figures in espousing this scientific view.

The words of the Reformers are enlightening without any needed commentary:

Luther called Copernicus an “upstart astronomer” and referred to him as a “fool who wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth.”

Melanchthon said that “the eyes are witnesses that the heavens revolve in the space of twenty-four hours. But certain men, either from the love of novelty, or to make a display of ingenuity, have concluded the earth moves.” In support of what was obvious to him and clearly taught in Scripture he would quote such authoritative texts as Ecclesiastes 1:5 “The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises.”

Jean Calvin is reported to have said: Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?”

These three men were brilliant in many other areas of biblical interpretation but in this case were undone by merely one thing: genre mis-identification.

The Bible and Genesis are not modern science textbooks. To try and set the science of the Bible against modern science is to create a false dichotomy…and you can never get the right answer to the wrong question.