Ancient cosmology and the opening chapters of Genesis

Program / Course 17: Defending Scripture / Lesson 7.1

What you will learn

• Describe how the peoples of the ancient Near East pictured the cosmos and how Genesis 1 uses and differs from that picture.
• Explain the structure of the six days and the main proposals about the genre of Genesis 1.
• Compare Genesis with Mesopotamian creation and flood stories without overstating either dependence or independence.
• Summarize the early church’s readings of the days of creation.

The big idea

Genesis was written in a world with its own picture of the heavens and the earth: a flat earth under a solid dome, with waters above and below. The opening chapter uses that common picture while making claims that were distinctive in its setting: one God creates all things by his word, the sun and moon are lamps and not gods, and humanity is made in the divine image. Scholars and Christians debate whether Genesis 1 is to be read as history, as a literary framework, as a temple text, or as theological poetry. The question of how it relates to modern science depends on this earlier question of what kind of text it is.

Key terms

Cosmology

A view of the structure and origin of the universe. Every culture has one.

Firmament (raqia)

The Hebrew word in Genesis 1:6-8 for the expanse or vault that separates the waters above from the waters below.

Enuma Elish

A Babylonian creation poem, recited at the new year festival, in which the god Marduk defeats the sea goddess Tiamat and forms the world from her body.

Framework hypothesis

The view that the six days form a literary structure, with days one to three giving realms and days four to six giving their rulers, rather than a sequence of time.

Creation ex nihilo

Latin for creation out of nothing. The classical Christian teaching that God made everything that exists without preexisting material.

Hexaemeron

A Greek word for the six days. The title of commentaries on Genesis 1, such as those of Basil of Caesarea and Ambrose.

Polemic

A writing that argues against another view. Some scholars read Genesis 1 as a polemic against the creation myths of neighboring peoples.

Background

In the ancient Near East, people saw the sky as a solid vault holding back cosmic waters, with the earth as a disc surrounded by sea and supported by pillars or foundations. The Old Testament uses such language in many places: windows of heaven open at the flood (Genesis 7:11), the foundations of the earth are mentioned in the psalms (Psalm 104:5), and the ends of the earth appear throughout. These expressions were the way people spoke, and the biblical authors did not feel the need to correct them.

Mesopotamian literature gives creation and flood stories. The Enuma Elish tells of the creation of the world after a war among gods, while the Atrahasis epic and the Gilgamesh epic tell of a flood sent by gods and survived by one man. Genesis contains similar elements and tells the story very differently. Scholars debate how the two are related, through shared tradition, direct borrowing or deliberate reply, and whether Genesis tells the story as history. Christian writers disagree about what follows.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The structure of Genesis 1

The chapter has a clear shape. On the first three days God makes realms: light and darkness, sky and waters, land and plants. On the next three days he fills them: sun, moon and stars, birds and fish, land animals and humans. The seventh day, the Sabbath, ends the week. The pattern is orderly, and the repeated phrases, such as God said, and it was so, and God saw that it was good, give it a liturgical feel.

The pattern invites questions. The sun, moon and stars are created on the fourth day, though light and the alternation of day and night exist from the first. Some readers see a problem, and others see that the author arranged the days by theme rather than by physical sequence. This observation is the basis of the framework hypothesis, held by a number of Reformed and evangelical scholars, and it is also consistent with the way Catholic writers, such as Augustine, treated the days.

Step 2: Genesis and its neighbors

Genesis 1 shares some features with other creation accounts: a watery beginning, a separation of waters, the making of humanity last. The differences are striking. There is no battle among gods, and the deep, tehom, is not a goddess but a part of the created order. The sun and moon are not named, but called the greater light and the lesser light, which some scholars read as a deliberate avoidance of the names of Mesopotamian gods. Human beings are made in God’s image and are given dominion, a role that in neighboring texts belonged to kings.

Some scholars, such as John Walton, argue that Genesis 1 is mainly about function and not material origins: God assigns roles to the cosmos and makes it a temple in which he rests on the seventh day. This reading has been widely discussed among evangelicals, and some criticize it as downplaying the text’s interest in creation from nothing. The reading of the flood is similarly disputed, with some holding that the story describes a global event and others that it describes a regional flood or a theological retelling of a tradition.

Step 3: Early Christian readings

The Fathers read Genesis in a variety of ways. Basil of Caesarea, in his Hexaemeron, took the days in a largely literal sense while using the science of his time to explain nature. Origen thought that the narrative could not be taken as ordinary days since there was no sun for the first three. Augustine, in The Literal Meaning of Genesis, argued that God created all things at once and that the days are a way of presenting the order of creation to those who cannot grasp it in one view. He also warned Christians against making foolish claims about the natural world that outsiders know to be false.

These readings show that the church has long had room for a range of interpretations of the days. Dogma concerns that God made all things, that creation is good and that humanity has a special place. The details of how to read the days have not been defined by any ecumenical council. The Reformers, such as Calvin, held the days to be ordinary days in most readings, while also teaching accommodation, as the earlier lesson showed.

Step 4: What the opening chapters claim

Whatever one decides about genre, the chapters make claims that Christians have treated as central. There is one God, who is distinct from the world and creates it freely by his word. The world is good. Humans bear God’s image. The Sabbath is blessed. Evil does not come from the creator’s design, but enters through human choice, a theme developed in Genesis 3. Christians have long held that these teachings are the point, and that the manner of expressing them is shaped by the world of the writer.

A student can hold this view while differing from others about the days, the flood or the age of the earth. The disagreement is real, and is addressed in the next lesson. The important step is first to understand what the ancient text was doing in its setting, and then to ask what follows for the modern question.

1. What does it mean that Genesis uses the common picture of the heavens as a vault without correcting it?
2. How do the differences between Genesis and the Enuma Elish strike you?
3. Which feature of Genesis 1 seems to you to point toward a literary arrangement, and which toward a sequence of time?
4. How did Augustine and Basil differ in reading the days, and what did they share?
5. What do you think is the main message of the opening chapters, if the details of reading are set aside?
6. How might a critic argue that Genesis is simply borrowed from Mesopotamia, and how might a believer reply?

Examples

Different perspectives

Catholic

Catholic teaching affirms creation out of nothing, the goodness of the world and the special dignity of the human person. It allows a range of readings of Genesis 1, and Pius XII in 1950 and John Paul II in later statements accepted that Genesis uses figurative language. Dei Verbum affirms the truth of Scripture for the sake of salvation and requires attention to literary forms.

Orthodox

Orthodox theologians draw on Basil and Gregory of Nyssa, who both read Genesis with attention to figure and doctrine. Many Orthodox thinkers hold that the creation story is a theological account with real content and are cautious about both literalism and reducing it to myth. Orthodox liturgy sings creation as a gift.

Protestant (young earth)

Many conservative Protestants read Genesis 1 as a narrative of six ordinary days and hold that this is the plain sense. They argue that the New Testament treats Adam and the flood as historical, and that other readings follow outside pressures. They point to Calvin and Luther as supporters.

Protestant (other evangelical and mainline)

Others read Genesis 1 as a literary framework, a polemic or a temple text, with real theological claims and with no scientific claim. They hold that this fits the ancient setting and the early church’s freedom. Critics say that it departs from the plain meaning of the text.

Jewish and secular

Jewish interpretation has long included both literal and mystical readings, and many Jews hold that Genesis does not conflict with an old universe. Secular scholars read Genesis as an ancient Near Eastern composition with parallels in neighboring stories and with no value as a description of physical origins.

Why it matters

The opening chapters of Genesis are the best-known battleground between religion and science, and many arguments are conducted without attention to the ancient setting. A student who knows how the ancient world pictured the cosmos and how Genesis relates to it can ask better questions. Before asking whether Genesis is compatible with a scientific account, one must ask what kind of text it is, and the answer to this question has an honest range among Christians.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. Which do you find more important in Genesis 1, the details of the days or the claims about God and the world?
2. How do you feel about the possibility that the Bible uses the cosmology of its time without teaching it?
3. What would you want to ask a Christian who reads the days differently than you do?

Independent assignment

Compare Genesis 1 and a Mesopotamian text

In your own notebook, read Genesis 1 and a summary of the Enuma Elish from a reputable reference. Make two lists, one of similarities and one of differences. Write 350 to 450 words explaining what you think the differences show about the aims of Genesis. Say which reading of the days you find most convincing and why. Do not send this to anyone or post it anywhere.

Further study

• Augustine of Hippo, Confessions Read Books 11 to 13, where Augustine reflects on time and on the interpretation of Genesis.
• Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit (De Spiritu Sancto) Read for Basil’s way of reading Scripture with attention to the tradition of the church.
• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion Read Book 1 on creation and on God’s accommodation to human capacity.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Religion and Science Read for the models of the relation between religion and science.
• Genesis 1:1 The opening of the Bible.
• Genesis 1:6 The firmament in the midst of the waters.
• Psalm 104:5 The foundations of the earth.