Creationist
Studies
Genesis
1 Debate Misconceptions about
biblical cosmology
There is a current school of
thought that operates with a disparitism between modern science and the
cosmology of the Bible. The opposite school is concordism, which tries to
harmonize modern science and the Bible. It is not so much that true scholars or
scholars of truth is trying to concord the Bible to science but rather that
they discover that modern science is merely echoeing what the ancient text
already said.
Take for example the objection of a
disparity scholar like John Walton of Wheaton College, who said in his lectures
on the Genesis Debate, that the ancient Israelites were under the misconception
that humans think with their intestines. The Bible speaks of the thoughts of the
heart and so forth. But what Walton is misunderstanding, is that modern science
has discovered that there is a psycho-somatic connection. Should someone put
his hand on a sick patient stomach or heart, the touch, the warmth, the
realization of another human being suddenly breaks open healing and soothing
aspects in the various abilities of the brain. The interconnection will make
anyone say that man thinks with his heart or intestines.
Then there are scholars who uses a “that
was then but we are now” approach to Bible and Science. They try to show that
the biblical cosmology is incompatible with modern science. This person did not
read or study ANE maths, astronomy as one finds in the cuneiform texts from
Presargonic times, Akkadian times, Ur III times, Old Babylonian times and all
the other periods. We have to sometimes conclude that there is nothing new
under the sun.
Walton thought that the ancient
Israelites did not know the earth was spheral. Moses studied under one of the
greatest astronomers of Egypt, in the palace of Hatshepsut. In Job Moses said
that the earth was hanged up on nothing. He also wrote “who can break the links
of the seven star”? How did he know there are nebulae connecting them? You can’t
see it with your naked eye. Babylonian astronomy is a subject that Walton may
want to spent more time with, before he makes his conclusions. Our star maps
were not strange to them. They were very familiar with the constellations and
their characteristics.
Walton says that the ancient
Israelites did not know that the stars are suns. Wait a minute. Genesis 1
explains that when the need was there to give lights to the night, the stars
was made as well (Genesis 1:16). The purpose was the same as the sun during the
day, namely a lesser light for the night. What need is there for Israelites to
know that the stars are suns? Maybe Walton can answer that one?
In his book The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate
John Walton is applauded for asking the question “what did the text mean in its
context” but he did not look at the Mesopotamian exact sciences in cuneiform
studies as a source for understanding the Ancients. Walton tries to argue that
Genesis 1 is ancient cosmology and thus by ignorant writer(s) who knew nothing
of what we know today.
Walton is of the opinion that we
cannot translate biblical cosmology into our own understanding of cosmology
since we will make them say things they never said. The fact that the Middle
Age church believed that the earth is on pillars and built it erroneously from
here and there a text compilation, is their problem not the Bible writers
ignorance. Moses knew the earth was hanging on nothing. In the 15th
century, Leoardo Dati had a O and T concept of the earth: Un T e una O monstra
il disegno come intre fu diviso il mundo (Lars-Ivar Ringbom, Graltempel und Paradies, Beziehungen
zwischen Iran and Europa im Mittelalter [Stockholm: 1951], 251). Heinrich
Wuttke, Über Erdkunde und Karten des Mittelalters, Serapeum 14 (1853): 225-236; 241-272; 273-280, pointed out that
there were three concepts: square earth, egg earth and coin earth. He said on
page 250 that the round earth was seen in the following biblical passages:
Isaiah 40:22; Job 26:10; Proverbs 8:27. The earth was seen as a round marble
form as early as 500 BCE but it was the churchfathers who made it a coin round
shape (Augustine, Wuttke 1853: 244). Wilhelm von Conches, De philosophia mundi,
PL 172, 85A wrote Mundi nempe ad similitudinem ovi est dispositus, thus, the
earth is in a shape of an egg. In her book Mappa
mundi und Chronographia (DA 24, 1968): 118-186, especially 149,
Anna-Dorothea von den Brincken also indicated that another person Johann von
Wallingford saw the earth as an egg. Others mentioned Gervasius von Tilbury,
Peter Abelard and Daniel von Morley. Even Berthold von Regensburg is mentioned.
From the 16th century comes Valentin Weigel. Hildegard also held to
an alabaster shape for the earth. The square page earth was the concept of
Severianus, Chrystostomus, Patricius and Thomas of Edessa (Barbara Maurmann, Die Himmelsrichtungen im Weltbild des
Mittelalters [München: Wilhem Fink Verlag, 1976], 18-21). John Walton
should study PL 172,76D for comments on the sun by Wilhelm von Conches, correct
or not correct.
Judging from the accuracy that
ancient cuneiform astromers were able to predict lunar and stellar positions,
we can only assume that they knew more than what we are willing to admit. We
must remember that at Niniveh, Layard discovered a lense that raises the eyebrows
of many astronomers today. That is from a context of 620 BCE and earlier.
John Walton believes that we must
take the text on its own terms and that it was not written to us. To the
contrary, it was described for all generations and their concepts of science
were highly advanced, more than what we seem to be aware of today.
Source:
1.
http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2009/08/genesis-one-1.html#ixzz1HxbKAZCz
2.
Barbara Maurmann, Die Himmelsrichtungen im Weltbild des
Mittelalters [München: Wilhem Fink Verlag, 1976]
Biblical
cosmological understanding is highly developed if one is willing to read the
Text with care