Walton Vs Genesis

What is the best way to view Genesis? As humans we have thought about the main concern of Genesis in the same way. We believed that Genesis was concerned with material origins. However, we should look at Genesis in a matter of function. Walton is the man who came up with the idea that Genesis was concerned about function. The best way to gain understanding of this idea is to look at the Bible as a theological reading rather than a scientific one.

Walton believes that the only way people have thought about things is in a material way. When something is brought into existence people will understand it in a material terms. However, Walton believes that Genesis is not about material but is rather about function. Instead of looking at objects as

Walton brings up how Genesis talks about precreation which describes the situation of nonexistence. Genesis talks about how it is not lacking material but lacking order and purpose. Walton explains that precreation did not lack material therefore it was always present, therefore, the missing piece is order and purpose. When existence is brought into the picture it is referring to the existence of order and purpose. Walton helps prove this idea by talking about “…Egyptian cosmologies, where the desert and the cosmic seas are described as nonexistent” (29). It is obvious to the human that the desert and sea are material but they are not considered to exist since they do not contain order. Since before creation deals with the absence of order, we must conclude that creation pertains to bringing about

The popular idea was studying things with theology. The writers were focused on what has happened and how it happened. The bible offers theological affirmations, such as, God as active and humans in his image. God did it, but the text does not offer a scientific explanation of how he did it. To understand the claims we must look at what the text says and does not say. The authors wrote about the significant part of the story and the most theologically significant. Plus, if you looked at the text in a scientific way it could vary a lot from person to person based on their scientific sophistication.

I agree that we cannot look at part of the bible in a scientific way. For example, the author tells the story about how Adam was taken half of, in order to create Eve. Saying she was created from a rib was not scientifically correct. Basically it was more of just a metaphor of the creation of Eve. Therefore, we must study it in a theological way to understand how it is happening. Plus the way people look at the text should not be scientifically biased because the writers had no idea of how the present people would think scientifically. Genesis is much easier to understand if you look at it in a theological