A History of Christian Interpretation of Genesis 1:1 -
2:3
This book examines the history of Christian interpretation of the
sevenday framework of Genesis 1:1–2:3 in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
from the post-apostolic era to the debates surrounding
Essays and Reviews (1860). Included in
the survey are patristic, medieval, Renaissance/Reformation,
eighteenth-century Enlightenment and finally early to midnineteenth-
century interpretations of the days of creation. The author shows
that readings of Genesis 1:1–2:3 in the modern era have much deeper
roots than is sometimes realized. The 'day-age' scheme has roots in
Augustine's figurative creation days, the world-week historical scheme,
Renaissance Platonism and Newtonian science, while the 'literal'
alternative of the gap theory combines ancient literal interpretation
with chaos concepts derived from Greco-Roman myths and interpreted
through a geological lens. Early treatments of this text are poorly
understood because of their very different philosophical and theological
contexts. Hasty appropriation of ancient precedents as support for
modern interpretations often overlooks or oversimplifies this
difference. Changing ideas and exploration in the early Modern era
undermined the dominance of this text, so that by the time of Goodwin's
essay in Essays and Reviews, Genesis 1:1–2:3 was already well on the way
to its present intellectual marginalization. This study enables an
insight into the mighty career of a biblical text of seminal importance,
and fills a significant niche in reception-historical research.
Andrew J. Brown(Ph.D. 2011, University of
Queensland, Brisbane, Australia) is Lecturer in Old Testament at Melbourne
School of Theology, Australia
.
ISBN 9781905679270 (HBIS, 4)
374pp. Pbk. UK £27.95/ Europe £28.95/
ROW £30.95 2012