We are heading into an eight month series in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Last week we spent sometime explaining some context and introductory materials for this book. We want to make sure that we are all on board with how we are looking at Genesis. How we understand Genesis directly relates to how we understand ourselves and how we understand God. As we’ve said since day 1 at theStory, we want to be faithful to the essence and content of the Scriptures. So here are a few things to keep in mind while we go forward through the book.
1. The stories (especially creation stories) are not unique to Christianity. This should remind us that maybe the historical value of Genesis isn’t as important as the differences that are highlighted compared to other stories of its time. For example, our telling of the creation narrative is monotheistic (only one God) and the relationship that the creation has with the creator is vastly different in our telling of the story.
2. If in a thousand years people found a Mickey Mouse comic from 2007, they could assume that we believed that mice could talk, or at least we believed that they could. Of course, we don’t believe that because we understand the genre of storytelling that comic. The same is true for Genesis: We need to be aware of the genre of writing to best understand what is being said.
3. Biblical history is not objective, but history narrated with a divine purpose.
4. The Old Testament including Genesis is mostly stories and poems. This approach informs the intellect, arouses the emotions, stimulates our imaginations, and appeals to our wills.
5. All translation is in some part interpretation. We need to be careful not to add meaning to the text, but instead treat it as a text speaking to us from the past that aids us in to live well in the present.
Hope this helps…