SECTION 1 A SURVEY OF GENESIS 1 - 11 In this examination, no attempt is made to discuss every verse as Henry Morris has done in his excellent The Genesis Record (MorrH77), but we will be dealing mainly with the more scientific aspects. For some events, a possible natural explanation will be suggested which might be labelled “unsupported speculation” by some. There should be no objection to providing an explanation for a verse where no corroboration can be obtained, provided any such explanation is Biblically sound and in accordance with good scientific principles and evidence. The main purpose is to show that Genesis can be explained, in most of its account, in a perfectly natural way and that it is unwarranted to dismiss it as ancient Hebrew myth. We will deal only briefly with each main event, referring the reader to the later separate sections where specific subjects are dealt with in greater detail. The documentary evidence Before embarking on this huge subject, we should first examine the reliability of the documents from which we draw much of our faith. Non-Christians might be under the impression that these documents are few, unreliable and differ between themselves. This is not the case. We will be showing in Appendix 7 the extreme care with which the Jews copied their documents as old ones had to be replaced. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls showed how very little difference there was between these 2,000-year-old versions and the present-day. Regarding the New Testament, there are claims of some 5,000 NT manuscripts, but many are only a small part of a book. There are about 2,000 manuscripts of the Gospels and less than 100 copies of the whole of the NT in Greek. There are some 14,000 OT manuscripts. In comparison with this large number of accurately copied documents, those of the Greek and Roman world are sparse. For example, Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars was written about 50 BC; the oldest surviving copy was written about 850 AD - some 900 years later and there are only ten ancient copies existing. Similarly, the Roman Tacitus’s Histories were written 100 AD but the oldest of only two copies existing dates from 800 AD; 700 years later. Yet no one doubts that these are as the authors composed them. Thus, the documents undergirding the Christian faith are far more accurate and numerous than any others recording historical events. With this assurance, we can examine what they have to say to us today with considerable confidence. As far as the Greek NT manuscripts are concerned, there are slight differences between them, and comparing them to arrive at what the original manuscript said is known as Lower Criticism. Higher Criticism deals with the meaning and interpretation of the contents of both the OT and the NT, and this has generated a number of heretical views.
SECTION 1.1. GENESIS 1 - 2:3 THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE Day 1 - v 1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” In this majestic statement, God’s first act in what might be called His Great Drama of the Universe is set out for us. There is no apology or explanation of what he did, and certainly no hint of Him proving His existence.