A lot of people today think there is a war going on today, science and the Bible, you can’t have both, you need to choose. As we think about that we have to ask the question, “what is it that the Bible claims?” It may indeed be contrary, contradictory toward science claims. If we are going to try to deal with this kind of topic, we have to make sure we understand the claims we made on both sides, otherwise we won’t be able to assess where we land. And that’s the kind of origin story that has deep theological meaning for us, and would have been the kind that the Israelites would have been likely to tell.
If in Genesis 1 we have a home story rather than a house story then even something like the seven days is not something about the material cosmos, rather it might talk about how the cosmos became sacred space. For instance, when they built a temple in the ancient world, it took a long time for them to construct the temple, and that structure was being built to be a residence for God, it was being prepared to be a home, but first they had to build the house. When they get to the stage where all the preparation, all the material building is done, it’s still just a house. It’s not a temple, it’s not a home. But then they have a temple inauguration, a ceremony, in which this temple house becomes a home. You would find the origins of the home, that story, in the inauguration, the dedication, rather than in the long story of the buildings construction. We realize then that those inauguration and dedication ceremonies that we have in the Bible, and that we have throughout the ancient near-east, those home stories, those inauguration of sacred space stories often take place in even days. As a result it would be no surprise that in Genesis 1 we have a home story that is structured in a seven day sequence. And at the end of it God rests, which means that God is done ordering it as a home, as sacred space, therefore he takes up his residence and his reign in that sacred space.
If you look at a house, for instance, you could address the houses origins question by telling how the house was built. You could talk about the foundation, the wiring, the insulation etc. That would be the house story, and that would be a legitimate origins story. Alternatively, we could talk about how the people who live in the house have made it a home. That would be the home story. That is, how this house became these peoples home. And describing how they made it a home. That is also an origins story. And usually the latter is the story most people looking at a house would be more interested in.
So what is it that we think about when we think about the Bible’s claims in Genesis 1 and 2? To assess that, we have to make sure that we understand that the Bible is indeed an ancient text. It’s not written to us, it is written for us. But God has communicated through Israelite authors, to an Israelite audience, in their terms, and it’s that communication that we can benefit from as we try to understand the Bible’s claims. We should not think that the Bible is going to anticipate our world and our issues and address them, either explicitly or suttlely. We have to read the text for what it is. So when we come to Genesis 1 for instance, we have to ask the question “what kind of origins account is this?” You could do a number of different approaches to try to understand origins. So we have to figure out what origin account they are telling.
The home story is about how this world was tailored for us, by a loving, creator God, who wants to be in a relationship with us. The home story will talk about how God himself intended to make this cosmos God’s home as well, where he could relate to us. The home story is an important origin story that has significant theology connected to it. And so we would have to ask the question “which origin story are they telling, what do they want to know about?” Theologically the home story is extremely important. We find that most of the cosmologies in the ancient world focus on a home story. A home story talks about how the world is ordered, and how it functions. What role and purpose does it have. And those kind of things were important in the ancient world, and they are important to us as well. The fact that we have molecules and atoms and quarks and supernovas and expanding universe, that’s of interest and important for us to understand. But in the end what we really want to know is God’s involvement in this world and how he made it a place for us, to relate to him. That origin story that we find in Genesis is an origin story that is focused on theology, not so much on science. As such the claims that it is making may be claims that have more to do with theology than with science.
When we read the Israelite account in Genesis 1 we have to ask the question, well, the same kind of question. Would they be interested in the house story, how the cosmos was constructed by God, because of course it was constructed by God, and they know that and we know that. But do they want the house story, or are they interested in a different origins story, the home story.