The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate

by John H. Walton

Our first proposition is that Genesis 1 is ancient cosmology.

The Israelites received no revelation to update or modify their “scientific” understanding of the cosmos.

Some Christians approach the text of Genesis as if it has modern science embedded in it or it dictates what modern science should look like.

This approach to the text of Genesis 1 is called “concordism,”

If we try to turn it into modern cosmology, we are making the text say something that it never said.

Since we view the text as authoritative, it is a dangerous thing to change the meaning of the text into something it never intended to say.

The Bible’s message must not be subjected to cultural imperialism. Its message transcends the culture in which it originated,

The view of Genesis offered in this book is also teleological but accepts that all of creation is the result of God’s handiwork, whether naturalistic mechanisms are identifiable or not, and whether evolutionary processes took place or not.