I have a recurring nightmare. In the dream, I am walking into a classroom, prepared to take a test on Shakespeare. I settle in, fairly confident that I know my stuff. But when the professor hands out the tests, I discover that the test is actually on calculus—something I have never studied. Things do not go well.
Sometimes I feel like this is what we do when we insist on quizzing the early chapters of Genesis for scientific detail. “Not fair!” I can hear the chapters crying. “This isn’t the test we’ve prepared for at all!”
What have we missed in our obsession with science? What wonders might these ancient stories reveal if we asked questions they were prepared to answer? In this series we are going to try to do just that.
If Genesis 1-11 aren’t science, then what are they? I believe they are myths, and that only when we read them as such will they yield the deep truths they were designed to tell.
Wait, you may be saying. If something is a myth, doesn’t that mean it’s a lie?
No. Myths are not lies. They are some of the truest stories ever told. I believe that the myths in Genesis 1-11 have been shaped by the Holy Spirit to teach us deep truths about the character of God, humanity, and all creation.
Want to see what I mean? Read the series!
Carol M. Bechtel