Category Archives: Bible

“The Lost World of Genesis 1”

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Old Testament scholar John Walton has written extensively on the early chapters of Genesis.  These writings include a long article on ‘Creation’ in the IVP Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch, a commentary on Genesis in the NIVAC series, a scholarly book entitled Genesis 1 as Ancient Cosmology, and a more popular-level book carrying the title of this post.

In the last-mentioned work, Walton proposes a reading of Genesis 1 that takes account not only of the language it was written in, but also the culture. …

“The Genesis Flood”

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Pretty early on in my Christian life, I acquired two books about the relationship between science and the Bible.  One was Bernard Ramm’s A Christian View of Science and Scripture (1954) and the second was The Genesis Flood, by  John Whitcomb and Henry Morris (1961).  The latter was intended, in part at least, to be a response to the first.  Ramm had argued for an old earth creation and localised flood, whereas Whitcomb and Morris attempted to make a case for a young earth creation and a worldwide flood.…

Genesis 1 & 2 – Two creation accounts

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Why do the first two chapters of Genesis give two very different accounts of creation?

A sceptical approach is to say that they are contradictory, and therefore neither can be relied on as divinely inspired.

Among believers, an attempt is quite often made to fit the two together by making the account in chapter 2 part of the events of Day 6 as recorded in chapter 1.

Another approach is to regard the narrative in chapter 2 as introductory to the longer narrative about the Fall:

‘Many writers have sought to find a second creation story in Gn.

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Genesis 1 – The six days of creation

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As summarised here, Genesis 1 describes seven days of creation:

  • in the beginning – God started creation
  • the first day – light was created
  • the second day – the sky was created
  • the third day – dry land, seas, plants and trees were created
  • the fourth day – the Sun, Moon and stars were created
  • the fifth day – creatures that live in the sea and creatures that fly were created
  • the sixth day – animals that live on the land and finally humans, made in the image of God were created
  • by day seven – God finished his work of creation and rested, making the seventh day a special holy day.
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Mt 28; Mk 16; Lk 24; Jn 20 – Do the resurrection accounts add up?

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[This is an update of a piece first posted in 2013]

The difficulties involved in reconciling the details of the resurrection narrative of the four Evangelists are well known.

Let us begin with the question of how many women went to the tomb.

Mt 28:1 Now after the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

Mk 16:1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought aromatic spices so that they might go and anoint him.…

Mt 16:23; Mk 8:33 – “Get behind me, Satan!’

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Mt 16:23 ‘He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, because you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.”’

Mk 8:32f ‘Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 8:33 But after turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan. You are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.”’

The actual words of Peter’s rebuke are recorded in Mt 16:22 – “God forbid, Lord!…

Colossians 1:15 – ‘The firstborn over all creation’

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Col 1:15  ‘He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.’

How can Paul use ‘firstborn’ language here? Does this mean that he conceives of Christ as simply the first thing that God created?

In the 4th century, the Arians taught that Jesus was the highest-ranking being in God’s creation.  He was above the rest of creation, but below God himself in rank and divinity.

This heresy is followed today by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  …

Jeremiah 29:11 – “I have plans to prosper you”

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Jer 29:11 – ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope.’

This verse is one of the most beloved in the Bible.  But it has all too often been taken out of context and therefore misapplied.  In other words, too many forget that a Scripture like this, although written for us, is not written to us.

As always, context is king:

’29:10 “For the LORD says, ‘Only when the seventy years of Babylonian rule are over will I again take up consideration for you.

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John 19:14, etc. – On which day of the week was Jesus crucified?

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It is commonly supposed that Jesus died on a Friday (‘Good Friday’), and was raised to life on the following Sunday (‘Easter Sunday’).

But the biblical accounts of ‘Holy Week’ do not lead straighforwardly to this conclusion.

Some scholars adopt a fundamentally sceptical position with regard to the historical record.  For example, Judith Redman supposes that she is speaking for many when she states that:

‘scholars who have looked at what we can know about the historical Jesus from the Gospels have generally decided that the answer is “not much”.’

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Discussion starters – Acts 27-28

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To Rome! Acts 27-28

‘Agrippa said to Festus, “[Paul] could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”’ (Acts 26:32).

Do you ever think about ‘what might have been’?

Chapter 27

Using a map, track the progress of Paul and his companions on their journey from Caesarea to Rome.  (I hope you do not feel too seasick!)

Why do you think that this journey is related in such vivid detail?  (I don’t think the answer is very complicated!)…