Re-reading Genesis

Several weeks ago I received an email from a friend in which he forwarded some Bible questions he’d received. They concerned the early chapters of Genesis. Things like:

• If in fact humans have been on the planet for only 6,000 years, how did we develop so many variations of the human race in such a short period of time?
• How do we explain carbon dating of human remains at over 25,000 years when the Bible tells us that creation was in fact very recent?
• How old is the planet, and do we take the Bible literally on all of this information?

There are those who do back-flips trying to reconcile modern science with a literal reading of Genesis, and disregarding the science bits that don't fit. I believe this is unfortunate because it’s based on a category error in our reading of these passages. Allow me to illustrate.

Amadeus was one of my favourite movies when I first saw it in the mid 80s. It’s, the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his principle contemporary rival, Antonio Salieri. According to the movie, the relatively mediocre Salieri is obsessed with his desire to be a greater composer than Mozart, so he sets about to destroy the great musical genius and ultimately does so. It’s a powerful story, but eventually I learned that musicologists and historians unanimously agree that Salieri was actually a superb composer, more successful than Mozart in his day, and, though a rival of Mozart, had nothing whatever to do with his untimely death.

Discovering the liberties that the movie took with the historical material all but destroyed my appreciation of this cinematic masterpiece. But recently I watched Amadeus again for the first time since I originally saw it almost three decades ago. And, aware that the script was taking outrageous liberties with the historical material, I saw it all with new eyes and was far more deeply moved by it than I had originally been.

I had misunderstood the movie, assuming it to be a kind of docudrama about the lives of Mozart and Salieri when, in reality, it’s barely about them at all. It simply uses their historical rivalry to show us how even the greatest lives can be destroyed when human pride and envy come into conflict with the absolute sovereignty of God. This is a far more relevant truth than a literal rendering of their historic rivalry could possibly have taught me.

When we first discover the Bible, particularly the first eleven chapters of Genesis, we naturally assume it’s simply what it seems to be, a sort of docudrama about the history of mankind and the creation of the world. Then we discover that scientists (cosmologists, historians and anthropologists) almost unanimously agree that things didn’t happen quite that way, and we become conflicted. Should we discard Science or the Bible? Unfortunately many throw out the Bible, a few throw out Science, and most just limp along reconciling passages as they can. But my suggestion is that we do what I ended up doing with Amadeus; see the Bible, particularly the first eleven chapters of Genesis, with new eyes.

When our children were little they believed they were the central and most important people in our world. And that’s exactly the impression we were trying to give them because it was the truth they most needed to know. As they grew they discovered they were just four of billions of children in the world, but there was not a conflict in that because we were not teaching them who they were in the world, but who they were in our world. And everyone needs to be the most important person in somebody’s world.

The first eleven chapters of Genesis are the beginning of God’s story about who we are in his world. We and the earth are at the centre. The sun and moon are lights God made for us. The first man (the prototype of all men) was made from the soil. He was a gardener and worked the soil. The first woman (the prototype of all women) was made from the man. She was the same stuff he was, the best thing God had done for him since he was created (2:23), and the mother of all children (3:20). They were parts of each other (partners) like parts of one body; companions in the work God gave them to do. Their lives found fulfilment and purpose in obedience to God. Because of all this they were beautiful and good, and the world was beautiful and good. There was lots of growing, developing and perfecting to do. And there were temptations, and things they were not to do. But this was very good.

It’s a great story if we can get beyond the idea that its purpose is to teach cosmology, history and anthropology. And it’s far more relevant to the lives of most people than the age of the universe or where earth is situated in the galaxy. Copernicus and Galileo show us how to be good scientists and astronomers, but Cane and Able show us how to be good children and siblings, or how not to be. Darwin can help us see that we are one of many species, but Noah can help us see that, when the chips are down, the future of all species may depend on us.

Cosmology and evolution teach us that the earth is not the centre of the universe, and human beings are not the most important beings on earth. But there is a crucial sense in which it is and we are. That's the truth we need to live by, and Genesis said it best, and said it first.