Reframing Genesis and Science: Rethinking Creation, Cosmology, and Faith (Bible Geek Series)

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2018

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How Genesis 1 redefines the intersection of faith and science, challenging traditional assumptions, and offering a new framework for interpreting the Bible’s creation story. Mike Erre kicks off a Bible Geek episode exploring Old Testament scholar John Sailhamer’s groundbreaking take on Genesis 1:1–2—a perspective that profoundly impacts the way Christians engage with science, cosmology, and our understanding of the world’s origins.

Whether you're a science-minded believer wrestling with evolution debates, or someone who’s always felt tension between scripture and science, this deep but accessible dive offers a liberating way forward.

Key Takeaways:
• Reconciling Genesis and Science – Genesis 1 may not be an ancient science textbook, but rather a theological narrative focused on God’s intent, design, and presence—not the mechanics of cosmology.
• Two Creation Events – Sailhamer argues Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 describe separate acts: the creation of the universe, and then the shaping of a specific land—possibly Eden—for human habitation.
• The Meaning of “In the Beginning” (Rēʾšît) – This ambiguous Hebrew term refers not to a single moment, but an extended period preceding measurable time, redefining how we view creation’s timeline.
• Eden as the Promised Land – A provocative idea: Eden wasn’t a mythic paradise, but an actual geographical location—potentially the same land later promised to Abraham.
• Faith Beyond Literalism – A call to move beyond flat, literal readings toward faithful engagement with genre, purpose, and literary nuance.

Resources Mentioned:
• Genesis Unbound by John Sailhamer – A revolutionary take on Genesis 1 and Old Testament cosmology.
• The Pentateuch as Narrative by John Sailhamer – A wider look at how to read the first five books of the Bible as cohesive story.
• The Hebrew word “rēʾšît” – For more study, explore its use across Hebrew scriptures, especially in Job and kingship references.

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Music by Timothy John Stafford
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Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, Mike here. So glad you're tuning in. Hope you're having a great week wherever you are,
0:06.4	whatever you're doing. Thanks for letting us be a part of your life. Thank you for those of you that like,
0:13.4	subscribe, support. Man, you guys are such an amazing community and so very blessed to be a part of it today so next
0:23.1	podcast i want to start a series on um how to be political in in uh in these days um it's just so
0:31.8	nasty and so so crazy and it just uh it seems like it's getting worse and worse and worse. And so,
0:39.3	um, I want to start a series that's different than the Jesus and politics series that we did
0:44.1	earlier, um, in the podcast. I want to, I want to look at a bit, uh, at how the gospel itself is
0:51.1	political and how it informs how we are political. And so I hope that'll be
0:59.5	helpful. I'm kind of excited about it. But today, I'm starting to lead a little Bible study for
1:05.9	some college guys who lead Young Life in the Columbus area. And they wanted to go through the book of Genesis,
1:13.5	which is one of my favorites, particularly Genesis 1 through 3. And I've always dreamt about doing
1:21.3	an extended sort of study in Genesis 1, 2, and 3. I just find it so fundamental and so interesting.
1:29.9	And so I was preparing for that.
1:33.2	And there are a couple of things that I came across that I'd never heard before,
1:38.3	and were totally mind-blowing, at least for me.
1:41.1	So this is a Bible geek episode, but it has some massive implications in terms
1:46.7	of how you understand Christianity's relationship to science. And because that's one of the
1:52.1	huge issues in Genesis. How do we understand the book of Genesis in its relationship to the
1:56.9	accounts it gives of the origins of the universe versus 21st century Western accounts
2:01.9	of the origins of the universe and how do all those reconcile?
2:04.8	So a couple of preliminary questions first.
2:08.6	I want to always remind us why it is that we study the Old Testament.
	...

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