ICR article image.
Posted on 01/19/2016 8:21:50 AM PST by fishtank
Modern Archaeology and Genesis
by Brian Thomas, M.S. *
Evidence for Creation
With so many loud voices in our culture asserting that Genesis is a myth, one would think archaeologists have uncovered clear evidence that refutes it. On the contrary, some incredible archaeological finds confirm key events in Genesis.
In the 1970s, archaeologists discovered tablets made before 2000 B.C. at Ebla in northern Syria. Among them were found creation tablets1 that say, “Lord of heaven and earth: / The earth was not, you created it; / The light of day was not, you created it.â€2
Cylinder seals are tiny stone rollers with carved three-dimensional reverse images that the ancients would roll across wet clay to impress picture patterns onto the clay before baking it in a kiln. One of the oldest seals shows a seated woman reaching for one of two fruits hanging from a tree. A man also reaches for fruit opposite her, and behind her a serpent slithers. It has every key element from the Fall of man found in Genesis 3.
(Excerpt) Read more at icr.org ...
ICR article image.
Only proves that the idea of Genisis preceeded that in the Christian Bible, nothing else.
Archaeology clearly confirms Genesis.
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Disingenuous.
Archaeology confirms some of what is found in Genesis, but clearly not all of it.
Before I comment, I want to make it clear that I am a believer - I am Jewish and I believe in the account of the Creation in Genesis (though I also understand that some of it is allegory that cannot make much sense from a sheer textual analysis, or at least certainly not in any language other than Hebrew).
HOWEVER, I find the fact that an account of the Creation on a tablet dating back about 4,000 years to be interesting - and that is all. It is NOT proof of the creation, ONLY that some other culture believed the same as was in the Book of Genesis. A story or a tablet PROVES nothing by its mere existence - there needs to be a WHOLE lot more evidence to prove Genesis.
OTOH, DISproving Genesis is pretty much impossible. In fact, if you read “Genesis and the Big Bang” by Gerald Schroeder (a Torah-observant Jew and an astro-physicist), it will confirm that the order of the Creation in Genesis matches EXACTLY the order as science knows it today - and how would a bunch of guys, no matter how brilliant, be able to make that up over 3,000 years ago?
Again, there’s no doubt in my mind that Genesis is true, but this tablet is NOT proof thereof. Let’s not leave logic at the door just because we’re believers - remember that G-d gave our minds the capacity to THINK in a logical manner, so we do Him dishonor by not using what He gave us.
Wikiepdia has an entry on what is called the Ebla-Biblical controversy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebla-Biblical_controversy
The stuff from Ebla and Mari in my mind just show a common cultural heritage across the ANE.
Although I am a creationist, I am not a young earth creationist.
Au contraire.
It proves that man invented the printing press long before Gutenberg.
The 2 most dangerous numbers in the Universe could signal the end of physics
If CERN is unable to discover any new particles in the next 2-3 years, science may be unable to explain why
1) the weight of the higgs boson
2) the strength of the higgs field
3) the strength of dark energy
4) the value of the cosmological constant
don't agree with the standard model or the multiverse model, which means that physics may not be able to explain the origin of the universe
You are assuming that some civilization came up with the narrative before Genesis was “invented”. Genesis was the written form of what was orally passed down for centuries before someone compiled it all into written form. That is why a lot of it is lost in translation and written from the perspective of a primitive mind (such as describing the night sky as a dome over the earth).
Um yes the early versions were able to print on stone - the later versions lost that ability and we are poorer for that loss ...
In your view at what point in Genesis does the "allegory" of which you speak end and recorded history begin?
What is the rationale for your position?
FReegards!
“Although I am a creationist, I am not a young earth creationist.”
I am in the same boat. Schroeder explains that the Talmud has an estimate of the age of the universe at about 14.2 billion years, vs. the circa 1990 scientific estimate of 14.4 billion years (or maybe it is the other way around - I haven’t read the book in a while). The difference between the Talmudic number and 5,776 years of age is ALL about the time before Adam was created - and any theologian with any knowledge and honesty would admit that we have NO idea how long those “days” were, in human terms. Shroeder has an analysis to account for that “discrepancy” - and it is resolved via the Theory of Relativity (i.e. time dilation).
Incidentally, I find it SUPREMELY interesting that the rabbis who wrote the Talmud starting about 2 thousand years ago could have had ANY inkling of the true age of the universe as accepted by modern science...which is utterly impossible without being given the figure (directly or indirectly) by some being/Being with that knowledge.
Schroeder goes to great lengths in the introduction of his book to point out that a text of some 300,000 letters in length, written some 3,000 years ago for a bunch of desert nomads, could not possibly go into the level of detail that modern science does - there are literally libraries full of scientific knowledge, and the volume grows daily. Thus, by necessity, lots of the account of Genesis MUST be allegory that can only be interpreted in light of modern science.
“You are assuming that some civilization came up with the narrative before Genesis was “inventedâ€. Genesis was the written form of what was orally passed down for centuries before someone compiled it all into written form. That is why a lot of it is lost in translation and written from the perspective of a primitive mind (such as describing the night sky as a dome over the earth).”
Let’s use the logic that G-d gave our minds the ability to use and comprehend.
If you want to call cuneiform typesetting, go right ahead. And I’ll call a dog’s tail his fifth leg.
Are the Ten Commandments to be taken literally ... or allegorically?
Years ago someone here at FR directed me to Dr. Schroeder when I was looking for answers about Biblical time.....I remain ever grateful to Schroeder's insight and devotion to God and science as we know the latter....his (books), wonderfully insightful gave me broader views and understanding of His creation.
Allegory is, to me and in this context, the gross over-simplification of extremely complex subjects - with the goal of giving an adequate explanation of events that was/is comprehensible to the average person, and doing so in a line or a few words, rather than in multiple volume. The purpose is to explain how things are, in a simple way, as a necessary precursor to the vast amount of moral teachings that are contained in the Bible, not to be a scientific explanation about how the universe was created.
So, for example, Schroeder points out that there is a phrase in the Talmud (which is the Oral Torah that G-d gave Moses on Mt. Sinai in addition to the 10 Commandments, and augmented by multiple centuries of interpretations by the most gifted and learned rabbis of the era) that refers to “the breath of G-d.” This is something that occurs immediately after the “Let there be light” moment, and is intended to show that G-d breathed life (of a sort) into the universe that He had just created. That is an allegory. Schroeder speculates (and I recognize that it is one fallible, though highly educated, man’s speculation) that this refers to a moment that was 1/(1/10 to the 43rd power) seconds after the Big Bang, when the universe was about the size of a golf ball (at least according to modern theory). The “breath of G-d” changed the size to that of a grapefruit INSTANTLY. Had that (as yet unexplained by modern science) expansion not occurred, the universe would have collapsed on itself almost instantaneously. The “breath of G-d” brought the universe to a state where it could continue to expand, develop stars, planets, etc. - all as outlined in Genesis.
Now go and try to explain that concept to a bunch of wandering shepherds 3,300 years ago - heck, I can repeat it, but I’ll be damned if I can truly understand it myself, despite having 3,300 years of human technical/scientific progress to build on, and a deep interest in most areas of science. THAT is what I mean by allegory - it STILL applies in this instance, except to maybe a few hundred physicists.
Regarding the rest of Genesis, undoubtedly most of it represents ACTUAL history - though you should understand that most Jewish biblical scholars understand (and have for many thousands of years) that the 5 Books of Moses are NOT in the exactly correct chronological order - it bounces around a bit, because teaching history is not the Bible’s function, teaching morality IS.
Did God stop the sun in the sky in Joshua alegorically or did he stop the rotation of the earth literally?
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