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ARLY W ORLD Turquoise (the color of the Earth viewed from space) Following the Story The Early World period follows the story of Scripture in the first eleven chapters of the opening book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. The first book of Scripture begins with the Hebrew word bereshit, which can be translated genesis in Greek and “in the beginning” in English. Thus, the book of Genesis takes its name from its opening word. S tretching back beyond the mists of earliest human memory, the period of the Early World tells of “first beginnings,” of humanity’s infancy. It is a drama that unfolds in four distinct yet interwoven scenes, each of which builds upon the others, weaving an intricate narrative. The opening act of creation sets the stage for the drama that follows, introducing the story’s central characters: God, man, and woman. Everything is good—indeed, very good—but not for long, as the second act introduces the dramatic conflict that lies at the heart of the story of Scripture. At the heart of every story, whether it is tragedy, comedy, or romance, is a plot, and the key ingredient to any good plot is conflict, a great struggle that must be resolved. Into the midst of the beautiful garden, with all its grace and goodness, enters the Serpent, intent on evil. It is not necessary to read beyond the first pages of the Bible to discover the conflict that generates all others, around which the rest of the story—in fact, the rest of history itself—will revolve. p 6 In the third act, man’s wickedness plunges humanity into a cataclysmic flood. Yet, in the midst of the flood, God’s mercy saves a remnant through which a new beginning is granted to humanity. In the fourth and final act of the Early World period, rebellion and sin return at the Tower of Babel. The pattern of sin repeats itself, but now on a larger scale. As this period closes, the question resounds, “Can the pattern of sin be broken?” The four acts of the Early World set the stage for the story of Israel, of all nations and peoples, indeed the larger story of Scripture. Unless we understand the foundational narrative of the Early World, we will struggle to grasp the meaning of Israel’s story and the meaning of the story of our own lives. A CT 1: C REATION Textbook or Poetry? One of the challenges of reading Scripture is that it comes from a time, place, and culture starkly different from our own, employing storytelling techniques with which we are no longer accustomed. In Genesis 1, we are jostled by a text in which light is made on the first day, but the sun, moon, and stars are not created until day four. In Psalm 104, we are confused by the psalmist, who describes God setting the earth on its foundations, covering it with the deep as with a garment, laying the beams of his chambers on the waters, and stretching out the heavens like a tent. If we simply read such texts in a modern literalistic or scientific manner, we might dismiss them as a primitive view of reality and conclude that the Hebrews believed that the earth literally possessed pillars below and a dome above. Such conclusions are an example of a kind of myopia that keeps the modern reader from making sense of the story of Scripture. The great Christian apologist C. S. Lewis gave a name to this myopia-causing affliction, in which modern readers view what is most recent as most relevant and what is previous as primitive; he called it “chronological snobbery.” Before we write off the biblical creation story, we need to recognize that our culture is accustomed to straightforward, linear writing. While such writing can p 7 help us understand much about the sun, moon, and stars, it does little to teach us about the Love that made and moves these celestial wonders. Too often we wrongly insist on reading the opening chapters of Genesis as if it were a scientific textbook; by doing so, we miss the theological poem that it is. As one theologian has described, the author of Genesis wrote “after the manner of a popular poet.” 2 Yes, the creation story is a wonderful prose poem; its purpose is not to report scientific data but to communicate a profound theological meditation on the act of creation. The creation account and Psalm 104 both envision the heavens as a dome and 2 Frederic Seebohm, tải về 6.33 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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