Q. The book of Genesis has lots of weird texts to believe in this scientific age. The creation in six days, Sun and Moon made after Earth, Man from dust and Woman from His Rib, talking snake! Why all these stuffs that sounds so weird to our ears?
Actually, the problem is not the Bible but our mindset 🙂 and that's what we missed! To begin with a simple example, many of your school books have Qr links at end for further study while modern children like you all would get amazed to know we didn't even have proper smart phones and laptops in our time! This is known as historical progressive environment. The same case is with the Bible. It has interest of history not science! 😃 whatever issues you pointed out might sound nonsense from a scientific lens but holds a greater meaning in the message! Bible isn't given to us for scientific knowledge.
Let me briefly explain some of your points 😊
a) Six days creation: It was a creative way of explaining God's creation from his perspective but in a way contemporary ancient audience could understand. It wasn't about science. The ancient Israelites didn't have a scientific questions in their time of struggle after the time period of getting relief from Egyptian captivity. It just shows how he turned a world without proper order and function to a productive place! It shows that their God was alone a sovereign God over all created things in comparison to surrounding cultures that had stories of gods involving in the creation. Regarding the days, we aren't pretty much sure what kind of days they were but doesn't matter much to our faith since our faith is in God who might have created in anyway that he pleased. Christians from past thousands of years have understood the days in various ways without compromising the core message of the scripture about sin, need of Savior and the salvation issues. Many theories has been suggested, many has been outdated and many has been revised. One of the most popular theory almost prevailing in Nepali churches was Gap theory which is now almost outdated. Meanwhile, modern scholars suggest other precise and credible explanations like Mature creation theory, Day-Age theory, Framework theory and Cosmic Temple theory. Meanwhile, those who study the original context deeply usually suggest a normal days meaning as an intended meaning. For more on this, visit other labels in this blog associated with Genesis, Science and Creation.
Source: Biologos, What your pastor didn't tell you YouTube channel, Dan Kimball, Ben Stanhope, Michael Heiser, William Lane Craig, Early Church Fathers on Genesis, Blue Letter Bible, John Lennox, Dr. Hugh Ross
b) Sun and Moon weren't named. They were seen as lights installed at sky to rule over day and night. Its a way of devaluating their status since many ancient cultures viewed them as gods. We still have those cultures around us! Some underlying ideas is that Day One and Day Four could have been of same time due to a symmetrical structure of six days creation, others suggest that ancient peoples didn't associate the light of Dawn with the Sunlight and still other learned scholars have their opinion on insisting the light of Day One as God's own glorious light as it is evident even in creation stories of surrounding cultures. Hence, it seems this issue has nothing to do with scientific explanation but the cultural, humanistic and even functional explanation. What's more? The immediate verse in Gen. 1:16 mentions briefly about God making stars. The verse actually mentions the creation of stars with very little space which is otherwise just opposite to how Astronomy explains birth and death of stars! One of the obvious evidence that it wasn't dealing with science! The Sun, Moon and Stars are often used as signs, symbols, special time markers, and association with spiritual meanings (like Abrahams' offspring as many as stars) alongside showing God's nature of being a sovereign ruler, his vastness, authority, his presence and truth (Rom. 1:20). This is easy to understand even in our Hindu culture where we have Zodiac signs, meanings associated to eclipse and much more!
Source: Biblehub, Dr. Michael Heiser, Logos Bible software, John Walton, Ben Stanhope
c) Man being made from dust is likely referring to their mortal nature and also a humility. Even our Eastern philosophy has this teaching: Man made from clay/ dust of ground. Woman from rib means being made in equality with men. Its a relationship status that men and women need each other. Men is meant to protect and love her and woman is meant to be a helper and be under his submission and authority. The rib, being from side, particularly suggests that woman is neither above nor below man but alongside him. What's more? This is more an architectural language to mean side of something! This isn't anything a lesson on regenerating nature of rib but a beautiful lesson on human relationship. Some trusted scholars also suggest that it must have been a vision to Adam showing Eve is equal partner to him.
Source: Manokranti (Dr. Yogi Vikashanand), Dan Kimball, Inspiring Philosophy channel
d) Talking snake is not actually a snake. Neither Satan used a snake or took over snake. It was a symbolic language showing something was happening in the garden that is terrible. It was a divine spiritual being called Seraphim, another heavenly but rebellious character that appeared to Adam Eve, making them disobey God and cut off their relationship from him. The serpent was often seen as evil, associated with healing power, and divination. In ancient world, they were often associated with divinity and wisdom as well. Gen. 3:1 says it was more crafty than the beasts of the earth. It would sound like our modern metaphorical language such as "My condition has become worst than a dog's!". But just as we often say we are too social animals, some trusted scholars insist that in the ancient world, people didn't categorize the world like we often do today as natural and supernatural. They viewed the world as one domain. Even Hebrew authors mentioned humans as beats in Eccl. 3:18! It was something another supernatural being but evil appearing to do something terrible! Next, 'crawl on belly' simply refers to "to cast down and being made into a humble position before God'; 'Eating dust' can mean a defeat or dying. We can find an interesting connection among Gen. 3, Isa. 6, Ez. 28:12-19 and Jer. 14:12-20 regarding the fall of the being! It is also said that it was normal and fine for Eve to talk with this being as they were aware about heavenly creatures. That was the context! Hence, it wasn't about snake losing their legs or having an ability to speak (like Balam's donkey) rather it was a heavenly being attempting something terrible to persuade Adam and Eve to disobey God!
Source: Dan Kimball, John Walton, Ben Stanhope, Michael Heiser, Inspiring Philosophy
These things sound weird to us until and unless we shift our mind from modern thinking to ancient thinking 😃
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