Ian,

Over night I got thinking, I must Ian or others to recommend a book regarding a good interpretation on Genesis. Well, hello and thanks. Going on line to purchase today.

Thanks

Chips

Hi, Ralph.

Leaving aside the standard commentaries, you could do worse than to purchase Dr Craig Koester's, "Revelation and the End of All Things" ($21 at Koorong). Koester's book functions as a guide to Revelation, outlining all the major interpretative positions, but with a clear focus towards the text and its purpose.

Blessings,

Ian

Hi, Chips.

Walton's book is an excellent entree into the subject of Genesis chapter one and the Creation/Science issue. The other work is a fully-fledged commentary. Consequently, it's better at providing a sure guide through the entire book of Genesis; of placing the part within the framework of the whole.

Both are excellent resources.

Blessings,

Ian

Hi, Epi.

Genesis chapters one through eleven functions as a theological introduction to the entire book, but more specifically, with respect to God's election of Israel. Consequently, one needs to reflect on the overarching purpose behind this primeval prologue, and the function of the literary devices used therein, if one is to understand the message properly.

In stating this one also needs to be cautious of the error of seeking to downplay the historicity of key people and events, for example the New Testament itself affirms the reality of both Adam and the Fall. I suppose the hermeneutical key is to be found in the reading of Genesis literarily (e.g. with an eye to contextual indicators) before one reads the book literally. After all, such is precisely how an ancient Hebrew would have approached things.

Blessings,

Ian

Ian, Eric,

My first purchase at Word (local bookshop) cost me  $140.00 plus for The RSB. I aguired exactly the same bible from Amazon for a friend for $49.80 au including shipping costs. Quite a difference.
Also I notice Word caters for all types of religion, even scientology DVDs

best to avoid.

Ralph

Hi, Eric.

The reason that I don't (and won't) use Word is a mix of ethical, moral and practical considerations.

Ethically, as you pointed out, Word majors in the Pente-esque "Jesus Junk". One can buy any and every form of product marketing heterodox nonsense, but as their glossy catalogues conclusively demonstrate, remarkably little in the way of solid, biblically-informed material. For example, at our local Word store, there is half of one case set aside for "academic" materials (which for Word invariably means entry-level Bible dictionaries and one volume commentaries, etc). However, there are four cases set aside for "Spirit-Filled" materials by the likes of Hagin, Meyer, Hinn, Houston, etc.

Morally, it troubles me that Word claims to being "not-for-profit", a claim which I very seriously doubt. Their prices are incredibly inflated in comparison to the other providers (which is indicative of a serious profit margin being generated), but no Word bookstore manager could tell me what charities or causes, whether Christian or otherwise, benefits from the wealth. There's also the fact that Word point-blank refuses to promote, or allow their stores to promote, anything that doesn't have their "brand" prominently displayed.

From a strictly practical sense, I'm not even remotely interested in WWJD wristbands, or Smiley-faced Jesus hacky-sacks. The material that I require isn't the material that the average Word Bookstore customer is particularly interested in.

Blessings,

Ian

Groagan,

Surely you're not that obtuse?

Here's a thought that you may care to ponder: reflect on just how many tens of thousands of Roman Catholic priests there are in the world, then extrapolate the number who have been involved in child molestation based on historical data. Once the light "goes on" with respect to those whom you ignorantly fear, try the same exercise with medical doctors, legal practitioners, and school teachers. Then, in a flight of sheer fancy, consider what results when ordinary fathers who molest their own and others' children are reviewed.

Care to hear what I think? Statistically, it's probable that you are more likely to be pedophile than would be the local Roman Catholic priest who lives down the road.

Goose.

Ian

John H Walton’s ‘Lost World of Genesis One’ was one of a high light to me as with ‘Revelation’ by Gordon D Fee. Both authors’ approach is different to the view of most commentaries I have read, but to me they seem to give the most satisfying explanation of the subject matters.

The message of Genesis1 gets away from the popular notion that God is showing ‘how’ he created the earth (i.e. materially), but it is actually telling us how he made his creation, which already had been created and the earth was “formless and empty” (verse 1), to ‘function’ in an ordered system.

Pseudoscience has no place in trying to workout the story of creation if it is taken as material rather than functional, it just doesn’t work that way.

As we read on through the bible we find God gives little attention to material origins and one can ‘mirror’ the same approach to other parts of scripture; thoughts about the flood for instance and just this morning I was thinking of John 1:v1 “In the beginning was the Word……” ;

The ‘Word’ became “functional” for the benefit of man’s salvation through Christ.

God reigns over every aspect of creation and life at a functioning and ordered level.