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There's a saying that Christians in the American South often say,
There's a saying that Christians in the American South often say,
"The Bible says it, so I believe it, and that settles it."
This line is used to avoid questions about a particular part of the Bible. Instead of having honest conversations or engaging with a person's question, it's meant to shut the conversation down.
For example, here are some questions where this line is used:
For example, here are some questions where this line is used:
- "So you think God parted the Red Sea so Israel could cross on dry land?"
- "With everything we know about the universe, do you think God caused the sun to stand still in the time of Joshua?"
- "Do you believe Jonah was swallowed by a whale, as described in the Bible?"
- "When it comes to Noah's flood, how do you reconcile the biblical flood narrative with geological evidence? What's your take on whether it covered the entire earth?"
The pattern connecting these questions is a person's curiosity about Christians taking everything in the Bible as factual-historical. This answer is often given around the creation story (there are actually two separate stories) in Genesis 1-3.
Except for maybe the resurrection of Jesus, nowhere is the literalness of the Bible more often called into question than in its opening chapters. Here's the question we should ask ourselves as we move forward; "Did the Ancient Israelites view the first three chapters of Genesis as history?"
When Turning the Bible into a History Book Goes Wrong
As a new Christian in the early 2000s, one of my first pastors recognized my curiosity and desire to explore the more difficult questions of faith. After noticing my curiosity, he recommended that I start learning about apologetics.
For those unfamiliar with the term, apologetics refers to defending the faith. More specifically, it is a defense of the truth of the Christian religion. It comes from the Greek word 'apologia,' which means to give a verbal defense or speech in defense.
As an introduction to the topic, my pastor advised me to read books like More than a Carpenter, Mere Christianity, The Case for Christ, and resources from a ministry called Answers in Genesis. I devoured every resource my pastor recommended. Before long, I was confident not only in the what of my Christian faith but also in the why of my beliefs.
In full transparency, reflecting on this season, I often feel guilt and shame. I wasn't compassionate, loving, kind, or empathetic at all. The more I filled my head with apologetic resources, the more my hubris grew. I was an asshole. But church folks loved me because, in their eyes, I wasn't afraid to stand up for what I believed in. In the words of Paul, "I was not ashamed of the gospel." Looking back, it's so strange how I was so blatantly a jerk, but Christians praised me because I was a 'jerk for Jesus.'
By the end of my time under this pastor, I was not only convinced everything the Bible says is 100% correct, but I was also a card-carrying young earth creationist. Just writing 'young earth creationist' now sends chills down my spine.
My pastor, Ken Ham, and the folks associated with Answers in Genesis taught me that the literalness of the earth's age was such a core issue that not believing God created the world in seven literal 24-hour days called into question a person's faith. That's right, in the worldview I was taught, you could love and follow Jesus to your heart's content, but if you didn't believe that God created the earth in seven days, or worse, you thought evolution could be true, then you were likely going to hell. This type of thinking is fundamentalism on steroids, I know. It's not pretty.
Where the Bible as a History Book Falls Apart
One of the biggest arguments I was taught that showed a Young Earth viewpoint was 'historical' was the work of Anglican Bishop James Ussher. Bishop Ussher is most famous for using the genealogies in the book of Genesis to conclude that the creation of the earth took place in the year 4004 BCE.
This supposedly proved two critical points:
- Young Earth ideology has been rooted in Christianity for centuries. (SPOILER ALERT: It has not)
- Knowing precisely when the earth was created shows how evolution was nothing more than an Enlightenment attempt to attack Christianity by undercutting the authority of the Bible.
I can see now a man doing some math in 1650 is hardly a solid case that this viewpoint has been around throughout Christendom. You also have to do some Simone Biles-level gymnastics to go from one individual doing simple math counting genealogies to concluding evolution was a conspiracy theory to attack Christianity. Nevertheless, at the time, it was solid evidence in my mind, and I was proud to be a biblical literalist, young earth creationist, apologist, and crusader for the cause of Christ.
Then came the fateful thought I had on a random afternoon that changed everything for me. The only thing I remember about the day is that I was sitting down when the idea crept into my mind. Here's the idea I had:
"Do you really think the person who wrote the first few chapters of Genesis thought they were writing a literal account of how the earth was created?"
Yup, that was all it took to break the ideological dam. From here, a rush of questions ran through my mind. I didn't know what I now believed, but I knew I needed to understand the original author's intent for the text.
Learning the Story at the Heart of Genesis
As I began to dig into the history of the Bible as a whole and the book of Genesis in particular, I learned everything Answers in Genesis, and my pastor taught me was, to say it gently, garbage.
Genesis 1-11 isn't understood as Israel's history. It is prehistory. Within the Jewish tradition, everything in the Bible before Abraham and Sarah is a prologue to the Pentateuch and Israel's story of their ancestors.
The ancient Israelites' account of the world’s creation shows how their view of God differed from that of the other cultures around them. Every other culture in the Ancient Near East believed, in the beginning, the gods created the world. They created humanity when they realized they needed someone to work on the earth so they wouldn't have to. Humans who served the gods well could earn their favor in a quid-pro-quo-based relationship.
For Ancient Israel, their prehistory described man as not an afterthought created to serve the gods; instead, God created humanity for relationship, not servitude. Israel believed not the gods, but one God created the world, and this God didn't need anyone to serve them.
At the heart of the creation narratives is the one God of the universe who is not dependent on people to serve them but seeks intimacy and relationship.
Furthermore, though the creation narratives are at the beginning of the Bible, they are late additions. Most people don't know that Genesis 1-3 are two different creation narratives written four hundred years apart. Genesis 1:1-2:3 is called the 'P story' or 'priestly story' by scholars and was written in the 500s BCE. This version is the newer version of the creation narratives. Genesis 2:4-3 is the older version, called the 'J story' or 'Yawhist' story by scholars, and was written in the 900s BCE.
For context, most scholars place Moses's life between 1400 and 1250 BCE. This means there is a 350- to 500-year gap between when Moses lived and when the first version of the creation story was added to Genesis. This tells us at least two facts:
- Moses wasn't the one to write the creation narratives in Genesis.
- These stories were never intended to be understood as historical facts but mythological truths.
When was the world created? How long did it take? Was there a 'big bang'? These questions are foreign to the Bible, and the text never claims to have the answers. Instead, the truth of the story is found in myth and metaphor.
I've learned that creation stories are profoundly true but not literally true. In them we find the reality of the human experience. In Adam and Eve we see ourselves like looking in a mirror. The depth and beauty of the creation stories in Genesis are not found in treating the story like a history book but in understanding it as a story of the human condition.
All of us are like Adam and Eve, who start our lives in 'paradise' and innocence. Then comes a day when we experience exile through broken relationships, stress, anxiety, doubt, captivity, and conflict. Yet, within our expulsion, as we strive to live east of Eden, we also experience compassion, love, goodness, and beauty.
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Thanks for stopping by and reading this article! If my work has served you or you want to contribute to creating authentic faith connections, consider becoming an Authentic Faith Advocate.