The purpose of hermeneutics is not to restrict the text but to constrain us

As in science we rely on external verification and peer review

God’s Purpose is carried out through human purpose

Authority is vested in the author For us, but not to us: Message transcends

culture, but form is culture bound Must take our place in his audience

ETHICAL READINGEthical reading asks us to take up the position of the

implied audience and engage the speech-acts and conventions of the literature rather than using it only to formulate our own speech-

acts and critiquing it against the measure of our own

conventions

• No scientific revelation (heart) • Observation of natural cause and

effect does not remove God from the picture (Ps 139:13)

• Concordism vs. Accommodationism

Proposed Thesis

•Functional Ontology•Cosmic Temple

Functional Ontology• In the ancient functional ontology, “Existence” is

defined by having a function, not by having a material structure

• Genesis 1 provides an account of functional origins, not an account of material origins

• Genesis 1 is about God bringing order (functionality) out of disorder (non-functionality)

• It is fruitless to ask what “things” God created on any given day, for the text is not concerned about the existence of matter or formational history.

• Functions: Time, Weather, Food

As long as the earth endures,seedtime and harvest,cold and heat,summer and winter,day and night,

Will never cease

Cosmos as Temple• “Rest” is the main goal of

creation: People may be climax of six days, but “rest” is the climax of the creation account

• Gods rest in temples; rest is rule• Temples mark center of sacred

space and the center of order in the cosmos

• Temple is constructed as micro-cosmos

Gudea Cylinder

Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his

footstool—arise, O LORD, and come to your resting place,

you and the ark of your might. . . . For the LORD has

chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling: “This is my resting place for ever and

ever; here I will sit enthroned.”

Seven Days• Analysis of the word “day” suggests it should

be a 24 hr period• But what is happening during these days?• Most of the discussion is concerned about the

age of the earth• If the 7 days is like a temple inauguration, then

the objects are not necessarily being made in those seven days

• If the days are concerned with bringing order rather than making things, the seven days has nothing to do with the age of the earth

Nearly all of the modern controversies concern what

the biblical view is of the span of time over which

things were created. If the text primarily addresses

functions and not structures, what is the implication for

these controversies?