Continuing the conversation on creation

Abstract

"This past semester I led a doctoral seminar on the “History of the Interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2.” As we read and discussed the literature of the ages, it became evident that interpreters often shifted their methodology of biblical interpretation when they addressed the opening chapters of Genesis. There was an evident attempt to interpret the creation stories in harmony with the conceptual view of the cosmos and the origins of the cosmos in each age. For example, Philo of Alexandria, in De opificio mundi, attempted to describe the Mosaic rendering of creation as a reflection of Plato’s instantaneous creation portrayed in the Timaeus"