Thanks to everyone for taking part. We found close to 30 new uses for coffee filters!
The group handled some very big questions:
- Who wrote Genesis?
- What is “myth”?
- What do numbers like “120 years” mean?
One value of reading the whole Bible is discovering what questions you want to ask. Since it is God’s book, some questions take a lifetime, some longer, and some you answer sooner.
”Doubting Thomas” — a nickname he doesn’t deserve—asked great questions. He shows up three times in the gospel of John:
- John 11.16, “Let us go die with him [Jesus].”
- John 14.5, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus answers, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
- John 20.24-26, “I won’t believe unless I put my finger in the nail mark” and seeing Jesus, he cries, “My Lord and my God!”
Thomas’ fearless questions show his deepening faith.
Who wrote Genesis?
Tradition says Moses did. Scholars believe the stories in Genesis were told among the Israelites, family stories that made them Israelites. This is “oral history,” and is found universally, but especially before writing became prevalent and of course before the printing press.
God inspired the authors of the Bible, either word for word or idea for idea. 2 Timothy 3.16,
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
2 Tim 3:14-17 (NRSV)
Timothy learned from his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois, just as we learn our early lessons about God from family. (2 Tim. 1.5).
The Bible does not ask or answer the questions that scientists and journalists ask, because its purpose is to teach us how to live, not to satisfy all intellectual questions.
The Hebrew Bible we have was put in its present form about the 6th or 5th century before Christ. The stories may, however, be a thousand years or more older.
What is “myth”?
In ordinary conversation a “myth” is a false or made up story. Scholars use the word “myth” for truth beyond human experience or comprehension. For example, no human was present to observe the creation. No language can completely capture it. Therefore, “myth” (truth beyond human comprehension) in the form of story, narrative, metaphor points to the truth which the Holy Spirit conveys to the heart. “In the beginning God created…”
When you find an animal speaking, for example a snake in Genesis 3, it’s natural to suppose that what you have is truth in the form of a folk tale about how people became such a moral mess.
If you say “the Bible is a myth” meaning it’s a false or made up fairy tale—you’re dead wrong.
Many people believe the words of the Bible are mythic words, like fingers pointing to the moon (where “moon” stands for truth, “fingers” stands for symbolic language), You don’t mistake one for the other.
What do the numbers in Genesis mean?
Ancient Hebrew is not precise, as modern mathematics is. Numbers indicate relative size, not exact quantities. Ancient peoples, like many in traditional cultures today, often do not know their exact age.
Well, anyway, folks, thanks for a great time. I love you. See you next week. John