Walton's 'Lost World of Genesis One'

Alice C. Linsley

John H. Walton has written an excellent book titled The Lost World of Genesis One which I recommend. In this book Dr. Walton presents Genesis 1 as ancient cosmology and thereby sheds light on the origins debate. He argues that Genesis 1 is about function as understood by the ancient Semites, not about origins. He states, "The truest meaning of a text is found in what the author and hearers would have thought." (p. 43)

He later states, "Believing in the Bible does not require us to reject the findings of biological evolution, though neither does it give us reason to promote biological evolution. Biological evolution is not the enemy of the Bible and theology; it is superfluous to the Bible and theology." (p. 166)

Amen to that! From beginning to end, the Bible is about God with us, a reality which took human flesh in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the new temple, as John explains: "He was speaking of the temple that was His body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that He had said this and they believed..." (John 2:21)

Drawing on his knowledge of Hebrew and the ancient Near East, Walton interprets the creation of the cosmos as the inauguration of God's Temple with 7 tiers. Genesis 1:1 tells us: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 'Heavens' is the accurate rendering of the Hebrew 'shamayim' which is a plural form, suggesting a multi-layered or tiered cosmos. When the Apostle Paul speaks of being mystically transported to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2), he is interpreting his experience in the context of this ancient worldview. Temples in the ancient Near East were constructed with 7 tiers and where we find the number 7 in Genesis we encounter the thumbprint of temple priests.

Walton insists that there is danger in forcing Genesis 1 into the concordist view of writers such as Hugh Ross. Concordists insist on reconciling Genesis 1 with modern cosmology. Walton makes it clear that this is both unnecessary and dangerous. He writes, "If we accept Genesis 1 as ancient cosmology, then we need to interpret it as ancient cosmology rather than translate it into modern cosmology. If we try to turn it into modern cosmology, we are making the text say something that it never said. It is not just a case of adding meaning (as more information has become available) it is a case of changing meaning. Since we view the text as authoritative, it is a dangerous thing to change the meaning of the text into something it never intended to say." (Read more here.)

I find Walton's research compelling and believe he is correct. He received his Ph.D from Hebrew Union College and is professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College. His background orients him toward the ancient Near East and he does an admirable job of highlighting the parallels between Genesis 1 and the creation narratives of the eastern Afro-Asiatics. In pointing out the parallels with ancient Egyptian cosmology Dr. Walton demonstrates the uniformity of cosmological thought from Africa to Babylon, further evidence for the Afro-Asiatic Dominion.

As an educator I appreciate the final chapter of Walton's book which calls for neutrality in public education on the subject of origins. Bible-believers should not insist that young-earth creationism or Intelligent Design be taught, but we should insist on what Walton calls "metaphysical naturalism" (p. 165). Restoring metaphysics to education would reintroduce the catalyst for the integration of learning, as Dorothy Sayers astutely recognized in her Lost Tools of Learning.

Finally, a word that spoke to my heart in a personal way. Walton wrote, "...we are presumptuous if we consider our interpretations of Scripture to have the same authority as Scripture itself." Lord, never allow me to forget this!