must entail the destruction and recreation of a "new heaven and earth," as the
author of the last book in the Bible appears to presume. If our planet was
obliterated tomorrow, the stars of over 100 billion galaxies would continue to
shine for billions of years. And there are planets aplenty in this cosmos if one
judges by the over four hundred detected around nearby stars. Maybe elsewhere
in this cosmos there are even sentient beings, lacking telescopes, who are
beginning to compose their own creation myths?
NOTES
1. Discoveries such as the Rosetta Stone and the Behistun Inscription
revolutionized studies of hieroglyphs and cuneiform, respectively. The Rosetta
Stone is inscribed with the same declaration written in three different scripts:
Egyptian hieroglyphics, Egyptian demotic, and classical Greek. Using the Greek
inscription as a guide, scholars were able to decipher hieroglyphs by 1822. The
Behistun Inscription is similar to the Rosetta Stone in that it also featured a
declaration in three different scripts that enabled cuneiform to be deciphered in
the 1850s.
2. Mark S. Smith, Othmar Keel, John H. Walton, and Kenton L. Sparks
(respectively, two Catholic and two Evangelical Protestant scholars) are the
authors of some superb books on the meaning of Genesis 1 in its cultural
context. See the following works:
Mark S. Smith, The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1 (Minneapolis, MN:
Fortress Press, 2009).
Othmar Keel and Silvia Schroer, Creation: Biblical Theology in the Context
of Ancient Near Eastern Religion (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns,
Forthcoining, Spring 2010).
Othmar Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World-Ancient Near Eastern
Iconography and the Book of Psalms (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns,
1997).
John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and
the Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009).
Walton, "Interpreting the Bible as an Ancient Near Eastern Document," in
Israel.- Ancient Kingdom or Late Invention? Archaeology, Ancient
Civilizations, and the Bible, pp. 298-327, ed. D. Block (Nashville, TN:
Broadman/ Holman, 2008).
Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament Introducing
the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Academic, 2006).
Walton, "Ancient Near Eastern Background Studies," in Dictionary for
Theological Interpretation of Scripture, eds. K. Vanhoozer et al. (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker, 2005).
Walton, New International Version Application Commentary: Genesis
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001).
Kenton L. Sparks, God's Word in Human Words.- An Evangelical
Appropriation of Critical Biblical Scholarship (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Academic, 2008).
Sparks, "Enuma Elish and Priestly Mimesis: Elite Emulation in Nascent
Judaism," journal of Biblical Literature 126, no. 4 (2007): 625-48.
Sparks, Ancient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible-A Guide to the
Background Literature (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2005).
G. K. Beale and John N. Oswalt (Evangelical Christian professors of NT
and OT, respectively) agree with their brethren above that Genesis 1 should
not be used as the basis for "creation science." Neither should isolated
verses be plucked from the Bible and treated as evidence of divine
foreknowledge of modern science [my summation of e-mail
communications with both professors]. On the other hand, both agree that
the wealth of parallels between the Bible and ancient Near Eastern myths
are impinging uncomfortably on a belief in the "inerrancy of Scripture," so
they each offer slightly different means by which to try to defend the Bible's
uniqueness. [Beale, The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism:
Responding to New Challenges to Biblical Authority (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway Books, 2008); Oswalt, The Bible among the Myths: Unique
Revelation orjust Ancient Literature? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan,
2009).] Two Evangelicals have reviewed Beale's book and explained why
Genesis 1 and other parts of the Bible present falsifiable statements
regarding cosmology that cannot be explained away solely as "temple
imagery" (as Beale had hoped): Peter Enns, the Bulletin for Biblical
Research 19, no. 4 (2009): 628-31, http://aboulet.files.wordpress
.corn/2010/01/ennsbbrreview.pdf; and Denis O. Lamoureux, "The Erosion
of Biblical Inerrancy, or Toward a More Biblical View of the Inerrant Word
of God?"-forthcoming, see the Web site of the American Scientific
Affiliation: http://www.asa3.org/ASA/topics/Book Reviews All/index.html.
The following are additional works by Evangelical Christians who agree that
the ancient Near Eastern milieu of Genesis 1 needs to be taken more seriously by
their fellow Evangelicals:
Paul H. Seely, "The Firmament and the Water Above, Part I: The Meaning
of Raqia' in Gen 1:6-8" Westminster Theological journal 53 (1991): 227-40,
http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/OTeSources/ 01-
Genesis/Text/Articles-Books/Seely-Firmament-WTJ.pdf;
Seely, "The Firmament and the Water Above, Part II: The Meaning of `The
Water above the Firmament' in Gen 1:6-8," Westminster Theological
journal 54 (1992): 31-46," http://www.thedivinecouncil.com/seely pt2.pdf;
Seely, "The Geographical Meaning of `Earth' and `Seas' in Genesis 1:10,"
Westminster Theological journal 59 (1997): 231-55, http://faculty
.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/OTeSources/01-Genesis Text/Articles-
Books/ Seely_EarthSeas_WTJ.pdf;
Seely, "The Date of the Tower of Babel and Some Theological
Implications," Westminster Theological journal 63, no. 1 (2001): 15-38,
http:// faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/OTeSources/01 -
Genesis/Text/Articles-Books/Seely_Babel_WTJ.pdf;
Seely, "The Three-Storied Universe," American Scientific Affiliation 21,
no. 18 (March 1969): 18-22, http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1969/JASA3
-69Seely.html;
Seely, "The First Four Days of Genesis in Concordist Theory and in
Biblical Context," American Scientific Affiliation: Perspectives on Science
& Christian Faith 49 (June 1997): 85-95, http://www.asa3.org/ASA/ PSCF/
1997/PSCF6-97Seely.html;
Denis O. Lamoureux, Evolutionary Creation.- A Christian Approach to
Evolution (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2008);
Lamoureux, "Lessons from the Heavens: On Scripture, Science and
Inerrancy," Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 60, no. 1 (March
2008): 4-15, http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF2008PSCF3-
08Lamoureux.pdf;
Gordon J. Glover, Beyond the Firmament-Understanding Science and the
Theology of Creation (Chesapeake, VA: Watertree Press, 2007),
http://www.blog .beyondthefirmament.com/;
Stephen C. Meyers, A Biblical Cosmology (master's thesis at Westminster
Theological Seminary, 1989), http://www.bibleandscience.com/bible/
books/genesis/genesis 1_toc.htm;
Meyers, "The Bibl
e and Science: Do the Bible and Science Agree?" http://
www.bibleandscience.coin/science/bibleandscience.htin;
Robert J. Schneider, "Does the Bible Teach a Spherical Earth?"
Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 53 (September 2001): 159-69,
http:// www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2001/PSCF9-OISchneider.htinl;
R. Christopher Heard, "Why I Am Not a Creationist," Higgaion, November
18, 2005, http://www.heardworld.com/higgaion/2005/11/why-i-am-not-
creationist.html.
Essential works include Wayne Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography
(Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1998); Luis I.J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew
Conception of the World A Philological and Literary Study (Rome: Pontifical
Biblical Institute, 1970); and Richard J. Clifford, Catholic Biblical Quarterly
Monograph Series: Creation Accounts in the Ancient Near East and in the Bible
26 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1994).
3. Hammurabi:r Code of Laws, translated into English by L. W. King in 1910
[available online]. The stela containing the Code of Hammurabi was discovered
in 1901. The Code of Hammurabi was one of several sets of laws in the ancient
Near East. Earlier collections of laws include the Code of Ur-Nammu, king of Ur
(ca. 2050 BCE); the Laws of Eshnunna (ca. 1930 BCE); the codex of Lipit-Ishtar
of Ism (ca. 1870 BCE); Hittite laws, and Assyrian laws. These codes come from
similar cultures in a relatively small geographical area, and they have passages
that resemble each other. The text of the Code of Hammurabi was redacted for
1,500 years, and is considered the predecessor of Jewish and Islamic legal
systems. See David P. Wright, Inventing God:r Law: How the Covenant Code of
the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi (London: Oxford
University Press, 2009).
4. Smith, Priestly Vision, pp. 11-12.
5. Victor Hurowitz, "The Genesis of Genesis: Is the Creation Story
Babylonian?" Bible Review 21 (2005): 52: "The author of Enuma Elish is
deliberately attributing to Marduk and Babylon acts ascribed to other gods and
cities in other myths. The author is stealing the thunder of these gods,
undermining them in favor of Marduk. When Marduk receives Ellil's fifty
names, he in effect becomes Ellil. When the gods build Babylon instead of
Nippur, Babylon becomes the new religious capital.... Enuma Elish is a story
about Marduk that challenges a[n earlier] story about Ninurta. It reflects a
political-theological competition over primacy in the pantheon and supremacy of
the capital city.... These tales of Marduk's [supremacy] spawned debate. An
ancient Babylonian commentary praises Marduk; an Assyrian commentary
satirizes him.... The ancient Near East was full of conflicting claims to
supremacy of this or that god or city over all others. The Bible is part of this
polemic." For more on the historical development of both Mesopotamian and
Hebrew creation myths see Smith, Priestly Vision, pp. 18-21,136-37,150,182-83.
6. For example, after Babylon had been plundered by the king of Assyria, the
next king of Babylon interpreted that invasion as a punishment sent by Babylon's
high god who had been angered by his own people: "[The citizens of Babylon]
had oppressed the weak, and handed the weak into the power of the strong.
Inside the city there was tyranny, receiving of bribes, people plundering each
other's things, sons cursing fathers in the street, slaves cursing masters, they put
an end to offerings [to the gods], they laid hands on the property of the temple of
the gods, and sold silver, gold and precious stones.... Marduk [the high god of
Babylon] grew angry and devised evil to overwhelm the land and destroy the
peoples," cf. W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature (London: Oxford
University Press, 1960), p. 5.
7. John A.Wilson, "Egypt," Before Philosophy, ed. H. Frankfort (Baltimore,
MD: Penguin Books, 1967), p. 53.
8. Ibid., pp. 54-55.
9. Keel, Symbolism, p. 28.
10. Ibid., pp. 26, 37.
11. Wilson, "Egypt," pp. 55-56. Paul Seely adds, "A number of texts speak of
the time when the sky was literally separated from the earth. Pyramid Text 1208c
specifically mentions the time `when the sky was separated from the earth.' Text
1156c mentions that `his (Shu's) right arm supports the sky;' and 2013a says,
`Thou art a god who supports the sky.' Coffin Texts (ca. 2050 to 1800 BC)
reiterate these ideas of the sky needing support, for example, spells 160, 366,
378, and 664. And Text 299a implies that if the supporting arms of Shu were
hacked off, the sky would fall." ["The Firmament and the Water Above, Part I,"
p. 231.]
12. Keel, Symbolism, pp. 31, 33, 36.
13. Raymond van Over, ed., "Egyptian Hymns to the Creator," in Sun Songs:
Creation Myths from around the World (New York: New American Library,
1980), pp. 286-88, 289-91.
14. Raymond van Over, ed., "Hymn to Amen-Ra," in Sun Songs: Creation
Myths from around the World (New York: New American Library, 1980), pp.
289-91.
15. The Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical
World, vol. 1, ed. William Hallo (Leiden: Brill, 1997), pp. 38-39; Walter
Beyerlin, ed., John Bowden, trans., in collaboration with Hellmutt Brunner et al.,
Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1969), p. 365.
16. E. A. Wallis Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead The Papyrus of Ani
(New York: Dover, 1967, a reprint of the 1895 edition), pp. xcii-xciii.
17. Stephen Herbert Landgon, "Word (Sumerian and Babylonian)," TheEncy-
clopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. 12, ed. James Hastings (New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1922), pp. 749-52.
See also, Helmer Ringgren, Word and Wisdom: Studies in the Hypostatization
of Divine Qualities and Functions in the Ancient Near East (Lund, Germany: H.
Ohlssons boktr., 1947).
And Frederick L. Moriarty, "Word as Power in the Ancient Near East," in
Light Unto My Path: Old Testament Studies in Honor of,Jacob M. Myers, eds.
Howard N. Bream and Carey A. Moore (Philadelphia: Temple University, 1974),
pp. 345-62, http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/myers/moriarty.pdf.
18. Ibid.
19. Enuma Elish, Tablet 1:1-2, 7-8 (Foster translation). Benjamin R. Foster,
From Distant Days-Myths, Tales and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia (Bethesda:
CDL Press, 1995), p. 11. All quotations from Enuma Elish in this chapter are
from Foster's translation.
20. Wayne Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography (Winona Lake, IN:
Eisenbrauns, 1988), p. xii.
21. L. W. King, ed., Enuma Elish: The Seven Tablets of Creation, vol. 1 (New
York: AMS Press, 1976, a reprint of the 1902 edition), p. LXXXIII.
22. Horowitz, Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, p. 243.
23. Ibid., p. 262.
24. Ibid., p. 265.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid., p. 9.
27. Ibid., p. 243.
28. Ibid., p. 250.
29. Ibid., p. 264.
30. From the Akkadian "Poem of the Righteous Sufferer," W. G. Lambert,
Babyloni
an Wisdom Literature (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960), pp. 58-59.
31. Horowitz, p. 264.
32. Ibid., pp. 233-35.
33. Ibid., p. 330.
34. Each ancient nation portrayed both its god(s) and its nation as if they were
"central" to the "world"-and in more than just a figurative fashion. An ancient
Babylonian map of the world depicts Babylon in the center of the circle of the
earth. Similarly, an Egyptian image of the circle of the earth shows Egypt lying
at the center of the earth (Keel, Symbolism, pp. 37-39). And according to
Andrew Dickson White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Technology,
vol. 1, (New York: Dover, 1960, reprint of original 1896 work), pp. 98-99:
"Every great people of antiquity, as a rule, regarded its own central city or most
holy place as necessarily the center of the earth. The Chaldeans held that their
`holy house of the gods' was the center. The Egyptians sketched the world under
the form of a human figure in which Egypt was the heart, and the center of it
Thebes. For the Assyrians, it was Babylon; for the Hindus, it was Mount Meru;
for the Greeks, so far as the civilized world was concerned, Mount Olympus or
the temple in the city of Delphi.... It was in accordance, then, with a simple
tendency of human thought that the Hebrews believed the center of the world to
be Jerusalem." For example, "This is Jerusalem; I (God) have set her at the
center of the nations, with lands around her" (Ezekiel 5:5); "the people (of Israel)
... live at the center of the world" (Ezekiel 38:11, 12). In addition, the
Samaritans, an ancient Jewish sect, believe to this day that their holy mountain,
Gerizim, lay at the center of the earth. They quote Judges 9:37, "Look, men are
coining down from tabbur haares (navel of the earth)," cf. Robert T. Anderson,
"Mount Gerizim: Navel of the World," Biblical Archeologist (Fall 1980): 217.
35. Horowitz, p. 334. See also Gaalyah Cornfield, ed., Adam to Daniel (New
York: Macmillan, 1962), p. 41, which features a labeled depiction of the
Babylonian snap of the world.
36. Helmer Ringgren, Religions of the Ancient Near East, trans. John Sturdy
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1973), p. 57.
37. Ibid., p. 110.
38. Ibid., p. 67.
39. Smith, Priestly Vision, p. 17.
40. Ibid., p. 185.
41. Ibid.
42. David Presutta, author of The Biblical Cosmos versus Modern Cosmology
(Tamarac, FL: Lluinina Press, 2007), edited one of the earliest drafts of this
chapter and also provided the initial outline for the "Biblical Cosmology"
section. I appreciate greatly his assistance and his permission to include portions
of his work.
43. Smith, p. 59.
44. Ibid., pp. 69, 239 n.185.
45. Saint Ambrose, Hexameron, Paradise, and Cain and Abel, trans. J. J.
Savage (New York: Fathers of the Church, 1961), pp. 126, 130, 132
(Hexaemeron, Lib., 4, Cap. III).
46. Gunther Plant, Bernard J. Bauinberger, and William W. Hallo, eds., The
Torah: A Modern Commentary (New York: Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, 1981), p. 18 n. 6; E. A. Speiser, Genesis: The Anchor Bible
Commentary (New York: Doubleday, 1964), p. 6 n. 6; Robert Davidson,
Genesis: 1-11: The Cambridge Bible Commentary (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1973), p. 18.
47. Gerhard von Rad, Genesis: A Commentary, trans. John H. Marks
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1961), p. 51.
48. T. H. Gaster, "Heaven," The Interpreter:r Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 2, E
-j (New York, Abingdon Press, 1969), p. 551.
49. Francis Brown, ed., Edward Robinson, trans., with the cooperation of S.
R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs, The New Brown, Driver Briggs, Gesenius
Why Faith Fails The Christian Delusion Page 17
