Distinctive styles suggest role of multiple writers

The Rev. Darlene Strickland, pastor, Unity Church of Lawrence, 900 Madeline Lane:

Two creation stories are only one example of differing, duplicate or incongruent text in the Bible. The Bible is a vast collection of writings from a range of writers and groups of writers.

The biblical literature spans a period of at least 13 centuries. The collections of writings that constitute the Bible have been translated, edited and approved for inclusion in the Christian Bible. Numerous writings were not included in the Bible, and even more manuscripts have since been discovered.

The style and language of the two creation stories are very distinctive. The creation story in Genesis 1 was written as a highly structured hymn and speaks of a transcendent God; it is attributed to the priestly tradition of writers. This account has strong parallels to the Babylonian creation and flood stories. The creation story in Genesis 2 is written in a folksy storytelling fashion and speaks of Yahweh as an immanent God; it is attributed to the Yahwist tradition of writers and was written approximately 500 years before the Chapter 1 story.

It is important to read the creation stories, and the entire Bible, in light of the times in which it was written and of the audience/purpose for whom it was intended. This leads us to understand why a strictly literal interpretation of the Bible is impractical. The “spirit of the law” is much more enduring and relevant than the “letter of the law.”

The Bible, and all sacred writing, offers a much higher level of truth than simple literal meaning. Sacred writing can point us to something beyond the scope of words. Only the individual can truly interpret and discern the spiritual truth that is seeking to reveal itself as a living experience.

– Send e-mail to Darlene Strickland at revdarlene@sunflower.com.

Like Gospels, passages written for different purpose

Doug Heacock, contemporary worship leader, Lawrence Free Methodist Church, 3001 Lawrence Ave.:

The first two chapters of the book of Genesis do contain two narratives about the Creation: Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 is the well-known passage that begins with “In the beginning:” and concludes with the creation of man on the sixth day, and God’s rest on the seventh.

Genesis 2: 4-7 seems, to some, to be a retelling of some of the same events, but not necessarily in the same sequence, and with more attention paid to how God made Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him. A better question might be, “Are these really different stories, or perhaps different views of the same events?”

The latter situation is not uncommon in biblical literature. Consider the four Gospels of the New Testament – they are similar narratives concerning the same thing – the life and ministry of Jesus Christ – but not identical in details and chronology, and each one was written for a different purpose.

One way to see this is that the first narrative gives us a chronology of the events of creation, while the second passage presents a deeper, more topical look at the creation and condition of man.

Having said that, it should be noted that Bible scholars are not united on this issue. Some argue that there are too many differences between the two creation accounts for them to have been written by the same author, and that there are stylistic and vocabulary issues in the original Hebrew text that suggest the possibility of different authors for each account.

Other scholars take the view suggested earlier – that the two passages merely constitute different parts (and different levels of detail) of the same story, told in different ways with different purposes.

– Send e-mail to Doug Heacock at heacock@kanren.net.