Today we will wrap up our discussion of the functional interpretation of Genesis chapter

1.

According to that interpretation, you'll remember, the six days of creation do not represent

days during which God actually brought these things into existence, but rather these are

six literal consecutive days during which God specified functions for various existing things.

Now on this view, according to John Walton, its principal proponent, days one to three establish various

functions.

And then days four to six establish functionaries.

That is to say, things that will carry out the functions established on days one to three.

So there is a kind of parallelism here, such as we saw in the literary framework view,

but it's interpreted differently.

Walton argues that days one to three serve to establish the basis for time measurement, day and night, weather the water's above

and the water's below, and then food, the vegetation.

So time measurement, weather, and food, these functions are established on the first three days.

Now, I don't think that we need to dispute the point that those things are created for these

purposes.

But that obviously does not imply that the creation of the dry land, the firmament, and

the vegetation is not also affirmed, along with the specification

of their functions.

Walton has a particularly difficult time with the firmament.

He thinks that ancient Israelites believed that there literally existed a solid dome in the sky which held up the waters that

were above the earth. And he says, if we take Genesis 1 as an account of material creation,

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