"Will you do a word-by-word analysis with me of the Creation accounts in Genesis?"
Yup. Would you like to go first, since you brought it up?
Sure.
I have also asked ThisLittleLightofMine if he'd like to join in the discussion as well.
Once he responds, we can begin.
The first place I will start is a little bit before the text. Do we agree that we are just going to use the King James Version, and that we're not going to go to any OTHER translation to "clarify" the King James text? I am assuming that you don't read ancient Hebrew or ancient Greek, and are not able to directly read the various ancient texts in their original languages, but must rely - as must I - on a translation.
This being the case, I just want to be sure that we are on the same page and agreeing to use the identical translation, and that we're going to stipulate that knowing what the word of God really IS does not require that we obtain doctorates in ancient Hebrew, ancient Greek and Aramaic. (I presume you agree?)
This is an important point, because once we stipulate to the King James Version text, we have A text, and ONLY that text. That's what we're looking at. We're not doing a comparison of what the Catholics think Genesis reads versus the Lutherans versus the Evangelicals versus the Jews.
We're assuming that the King James Version faithfully translates the word of God as it is in Genesis.
Agreed?
If we can't agree on this, then we have to decide what Scripture really IS, and in what language, etc. I am willing to use the King James, because it is the oldest Protestant version that is generally accepted by all Protestant English speakers. I am not going to insist on using a Catholic translation because the fact that it is Catholic gives some people the willies and causes them to think that it is perhaps tainted by error. No other Protestant translation has anything like the age and respected authority as the KJV. So I figure that you're going to accept the KJV text and we can go from there. If you don't care which Bible we use, then we can use the Catholic NAB. My preference, if you don't care which we use, would be to use the Jewish Publication Society translation of the TaNaKh, which translates the same Masoretic Text as was translated by the KJV scholars. The JPS TaNaKh is, in my opinion, the most LITERAL translation of the Hebrew into the English.
But we don't have to use that. I am willing to use a Protestant Bible, specifically the KJV, as our sole text. Agreed?
(If ThisLittleLightofMine wants to be involved in this, he can agree too.)
So, we have a text: the KJV, and we've all agreed that we're going to just read that text? We're not Greek or Hebrew scholars and aren't going to start doing our own translations of the various manuscripts. And we can't be using a bunch of different translations because the words are different, and we're interested in specific content.
I pick the KJV because I know how much Protestants love it, so why not use the most beloved and best? I think the KJV is a pretty good translation of the literal Hebrew, and certainly it is fine for Genesis.
So, are we all agreed? KJV Alone?