Genesis 1 And Psalm 104: A Comparative Analysis
In order to fully understand the concept of creation found in Genesis 1 and Psalm 104, information regarding the ideas of the cosmos help by ancient people must be discussed. Cosmos is a system of thought that sees the universe as a well-ordered whole. The context current western-societies have is very different from that of Middle Eastern and Israelite societies. The worldview of the Israelites was heavily influenced by that of ancient Mesopotamia; Therefore, it is believed that much of the material in the book of Genesis is based on Middle Eastern stories (Matthews & Moyer, 2012). This means that the study of nonbiblical stories is important to gain a full understanding of the text.
The ideas of the cosmos held by the ancient Middle East …show more content…
This means that they would read the text in order to understand the origins of the account while trying to grasp what the order and function of the account are. The functional view of creation is that “God is declaring purpose for the cosmos as an ordered space for people and as sacred space where he will dwell” (Walton, 2015). This means that Genesis 1 and Psalm 104 allow the reader to expand their view of the world and gain an understanding of how they are to live out their lives as people who bear God’s image (Walton, 2015). The material view places significance on the idea that God created the world ex nihilo, or out of nothing, and this has been a common argument among many. Though, if we are to understand the text with the context of the audience in mind, this was not an issue that Genesis 1 intended to speak to (Walton, 2015). Ultimately, Genesis 1 and Psalm 104 must be understood with a functional view rather than a material view because, “The activity of giving order and function to creation that God performs in Genesis 1 is not possible to define materially, naturally, or scientifically” (Walton, 2015). With this in mind, the western reader must understand that the text is not written to them and thus they must work harder to understand what the message is for the current culture. After all, it should be assumed that the author of Genesis 1 knew what he was talking about and communicated it in a way that the intended audience would understand (“Origins Today: Genesis Through Ancient Eyes,”
The ideas of the cosmos held by the ancient Middle East …show more content…
This means that they would read the text in order to understand the origins of the account while trying to grasp what the order and function of the account are. The functional view of creation is that “God is declaring purpose for the cosmos as an ordered space for people and as sacred space where he will dwell” (Walton, 2015). This means that Genesis 1 and Psalm 104 allow the reader to expand their view of the world and gain an understanding of how they are to live out their lives as people who bear God’s image (Walton, 2015). The material view places significance on the idea that God created the world ex nihilo, or out of nothing, and this has been a common argument among many. Though, if we are to understand the text with the context of the audience in mind, this was not an issue that Genesis 1 intended to speak to (Walton, 2015). Ultimately, Genesis 1 and Psalm 104 must be understood with a functional view rather than a material view because, “The activity of giving order and function to creation that God performs in Genesis 1 is not possible to define materially, naturally, or scientifically” (Walton, 2015). With this in mind, the western reader must understand that the text is not written to them and thus they must work harder to understand what the message is for the current culture. After all, it should be assumed that the author of Genesis 1 knew what he was talking about and communicated it in a way that the intended audience would understand (“Origins Today: Genesis Through Ancient Eyes,”