I
was cautious and curious when I picked up The Manifold Beauty of Genesis
One: A Multi-Layered Approach by Gregg Davidson and Kenneth J. Turner. I was
encouraged to see that the authors affirmed The Chicago Statement on Inerrancy (10).
That meant – to me – that wherever the authors were going, they were going to
affirm the text as the True Word of God.
The
authors break down each chapter addressing their points and concerns that
readers might have, and each chapter ends with questions for reflection and
study. The reading is not geared for the average layperson, but for the college
student, seminarian, and pastor.
The
authors identify the seven layers as song, analogy, polemic, covenant, temple,
calendar, and land. The authors identify these layers as within the text, but
neither opposed to the text or each other. These are additional facets of the
text that one may find and study to flesh out the beauty of the text and the
fullness of the meaning already there.
In
presenting the layers, the authors look at the linguistic uses within the text,
other Ancient Near Eastern parallels to the text – not to say that the Bible is
a copy of their texts, but to make the point that God has condescended to present
His True Word to us in a language and structure that we can understand.
This
is an example of the parts being greater than the whole. The book looks small
from the outside, but it is filled and becomes fuller as one reads the text and
applies it in Genesis one and considers the use of the layers in other texts. It
is an interesting and useful approach to gain more of what is already in the
text.
Within
the text, an assertion is made that floored me:
humans bringing of sin into the world did not change the Creation, only
our experience of it (90). How can this be right?
Paul
writes, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the
sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but
because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set
free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the
children of God” (Romans 8:19-21, ESV).
If
sin didn’t change the Creation, then what is the “futility” and “bondage” that
it longs to be freed from?
Other
issues such as seeing the days of Creation from the “framework” position and
support for the idea of animal death in the Garden just don’t make sense to my
reading of the Scripture.
So,
I would say this book has value in showing how the text can be opened like and
onion to bee seen to the further glory of God and our joy in seeing its beauty.
However, I find some of their conclusions/interpretations of the text
problematic. Use this book with care.
The
book ends with a bibliography, author index, and Scripture index. (Footnotes
appear throughout.)
[This
review appears on my blog, Amazon.com, Kregel.com, and Goodreads.com].
