This post is a response - with some explanatory Hebrew - to Jeffrey M Bradshaw's post this week on Meridian Magazine.
Science
and the Book of Genesis Part 2
By
Jeffrey M. Bradshaw
Editor’s
Note: This is the next installment of an extended version of a presentation
given at the 2013 Interpreter Symposium on Science and Mormonism: Cosmos,
Earth, and Man at the Utah Valley Convention Center, Provo, Utah.
Lesson
Two: Scripture is a Product of a Particular Point of View
Nibley
illustrates this idea:[1]
The
Latter-day Saints, [like other Bible readers,] are constantly converting
statements of limited application to universal or at least sweeping
generalities. To illustrate, I was told as a child that the Rocky Mountains,
the Appalachians, and the Andes all came into existence overnight during the
great upheavals of nature that took place at the time of the Crucifixion — an
absurdity that plays into the hands of critics of the Book of Mormon. But what
we find in the 3 Nephi account when we read it carefully is a few sober,
factual, eyewitness reports describing an earthquake of 8-plus on the Richter
scale in a very limited area. Things that appear unlikely, impossible, or
paradoxical from one point of view often make perfectly good sense from
another.
The
Nautical Almanac gives the exact time of sunrise and sunset for every time of
the year, yet astronauts know that the sun neither rises nor sets except from a
particular point of view, the time of the event being strictly dependent on the
exact location. From that point of view and that only, it is strictly correct
and scientific to say that the sun does rise and set. Just so, the apparently
strange and extravagant phenomena described in the scriptures are often correct
descriptions of what would have appeared to a person in a particular situation
…
So with
Noah in the Ark. From where he was, “the whole earth”[2] was covered with water
as far as he could see … But what were conditions in other parts of the world?
If Noah knew that, he would not have sent forth messenger birds to explore.
But
doesn’t Genesis 7:19 say that “the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth;
and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered”?
Explaining his understanding of this verse, Walter Bradley observes:[3]
The
Hebrew word eretz used in Genesis 7:19 is usually translated “earth” or “world”
but does not generally refer to the entire planet. Depending on the context, it
is often translated “country” or “land” to make this clear … [For example, i]n
Genesis 12:1, Abram was told to leave his eretz. He was obviously not told to
leave the planet but rather to leave his country… [Another] comparison to
obtain a proper interpretation of Genesis 7:19 involves Deuteronomy 2:25, which
talks about all the nations “under the heavens” being fearful of the Israelites.
Obviously, all nations “under the heavens” was not intended to mean all on
planet Earth.
[RHS NOTE: אֶרֶץ
eretz
is usually translated
‘earth’ or ‘land’ (as opposed to water).
There are two Hebrew words more commonly translated as ‘world’ (meaning
the whole planet). The most commonly
used is תֵּבֵל
tebel , which is used 37 times: it
first shows up in 1 Sam 2:8 (which also has eretz
translated as earth). See also: Psa 24:1 The earth (eretz) is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world (tebel) and they that dwell therein.
The other
word sometimes translated as world is
עוֹלָם ‘olam
, which we found in the Noah story in the phrase everlasting (‘olam) covenant (beriyth). Some verses where ‘olam is translated as world
include:
Ecc 3:11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his
time: also he hath set the world (‘olam)
in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the
beginning to the end.
Isa 45:17 But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an
everlasting (‘olam) salvation (yasha – remember, that is the name,
Jesus, in Hebrew): ye shall not be
ashamed nor confounded world (‘olam)
without end. (Great verse, huh?)
Isa 64:4 For since the beginning
of the world (‘olam) men have not
heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee,
what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. (another great verse. I sure love Isaiah.) END of RHS NOTE]
[Back to Bradshaw]Elder
John A. Widtsoe, writing in 1943, summed up the important idea of taking point
of view into account when interpreting scripture:[4]
We should
remember that when inspired writers deal with historical incidents they relate
that which they have seen or that which may have been told them, unless indeed
the past is opened to them by revelation.
[For
example, t]he details in the story of the Flood are undoubtedly drawn from the
experiences of the writer … The writer of Genesis made a faithful report of the
facts known to him concerning the Flood. In other localities the depth of the
water might have been more or less.
Bibliography
Bokovoy,
David E. "'The book which thou shalt write': Higher criticism and the book
of Moses." Presented at the The Expanded Canon: Perspectives on Mormonism
and Sacred Texts, Orem, UT: Utah Valley University, April 5, 2013. (accessed September 11, 2013).
Bradley,
Walter. "Why I believe the Bible is scientifically reliable." In Why
I Am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe, edited by Norman
L. Geisler and Paul K. Hoffman, 161-81. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001.
Bradshaw,
Jeffrey M., and David J. Larsen. Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel. In God's
Image and Likeness 2. Salt Lake City, UT: Eborn Publishing, 2014.
Evans,
Craig A., Joel N. Lohr, and David L. Petersen, eds. The Book of Genesis:
Composition, Reception, and Interpretation. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum,
Formation and interpretation of Old Testament Literature 152, ed. Christl M.
Maier, Craig A. Evans and Peter W. Flint. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012.
Friedman,
Richard Elliott. The Hidden Book in the Bible. San Francisco, CA:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1998.
———, ed.
Commentary on the Torah. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2001.
———.1987.
Who Wrote the Bible? San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997.
Gertz,
Jan Christian. "The formation of the primeval history." In The Book
of Genesis: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation, edited by Craig A.
Evans,
Joel N. Lohr and David L. Petersen. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, Formation
and interpretation of Old Testament Literature 152, eds. Christl M. Maier,
Craig A. Evans and Peter W. Flint, 107-35. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill,
2012.
Nibley,
Hugh W. 1980. "Before Adam." In Old Testament and Related Studies,
edited by John W. Welch, Gary P. Gillum and Don E. Norton. The Collected Works
of Hugh Nibley 1, 49-85. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1986.
Sailhamer,
John H. "Genesis." In The Expositor's Bible Commentary, edited by
Frank E. Gaebelein, 1-284. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1990.
Schmid,
Konrad. "Genesis in the Pentateuch." In The Book of Genesis:
Composition, Reception, and Interpretation, edited by Craig A. Evans, Joel N.
Lohr and David L. Petersen. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, Formation and
interpretation of Old Testament Literature 152, eds. Christl M. Maier, Craig A.
Evans and Peter W. Flint, 27-50. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2012.
Smith,
Joseph, Jr. 1938. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City, UT:
Deseret Book, 1969.
Widtsoe,
John A. 1943, 1947, 1951. Evidences and Reconciliations. 3 vols. Single Volume
ed. Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft, 1960.
Endnotes
[1] H. W.
Nibley, Before Adam, pp. 64-66.
2 Genesis
8:9. See J. M. Bradshaw et al., God's Image 2, pp. 267-270 for perspectives
arguing for a local (rather than global) Flood.
[3] W.
Bradley, Why, pp. 177-179.
[4] J. A.
Widtsoe, Evidences, p. 127.
[5] See,
e.g., R. E. Friedman, Who; R. E. Friedman, Hidden. For an in-depth LDS
perspective on the Documentary Hypothesis and other questions relating to
Higher Criticism, see D. E. Bokovoy, Book Which Thou Shalt Write.
[6]
Although broad agreement persists on many issues of longstanding consensus, the
state of research on the composition of the Pentateuch continues to evolve in
important ways. In 2012, Konrad Schmid gave the following assessment (K.
Schmid, Genesis, pp. 28-29):
[6]Pentateuchal
scholarship has changed dramatically in the last three decades, at least when
seen in a global perspective. The confidence of earlier assumptions about the
formation of the Pentateuch no longer exists, a situation that might be
lamented but that also opens up new and — at least in the view of some scholars
— potentially more adequate paths to understand its composition. One of the
main results of the new situation is that neither traditional nor newer
theories can be taken as the accepted starting point of analysis; rather, they
are, at most possible ends.
[6]With
respect to Genesis in particular, “it is fairly obvious that the book of
Genesis serves as a kind of introduction or prologue to what follows in Exodus
through Deuteronomy” (ibid., p. 29). “Nevertheless,” continues Schmid in his
highlighting of one prominent theme in the most recent thinking on the topic
(ibid., pp. 30, 32, 45), “the function of Genesis to the Pentateuch is
apparently not exhausted by describing it as an introduction to the Moses story
.… Genesis … shows … clear signs of having existed as a stand-alone literary
unit for some portion of its literary growth. Genesis is a special book within
the Pentateuch: it is the most self-sufficient one .… In current scholarship, it
is no longer possible to explain the composition of the book of Genesis from
the outset within the framework of the Documentary Hypothesis.” For a broader
survey of current research, see J. C. Gertz, Formation. For details of textual
transmission and reception history of Genesis in Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam, see C. A. Evans et al., Book of Genesis, pp. 303-632.
[7] R. E.
Friedman, Commentary, p. 16.
[8] J. H.
Sailhamer, Genesis, p. 5.
[9] J.
Smith, Jr., Teachings, 15 October 1843, p. 327.
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