Q&A: How do Genesis 1 and 2 relate? Tim Keller

when was Genesis written very interesting question I had one commentary tell me it was written as the children of Israel were going to you know going into the Promised Land it was written along with Exodus and numbers in Deuteronomy and other people have said it was written it was actually an oral form and was written down much much later you know like you know sometimes one is after Israel in the land for many years and again now I should not say that I should know a little bit more about that but a lot of it there's such a difference of opinion about that now why why are you asking so I'm not totally sure yeah the Exile right that's the one view the one who is that it wasn't written down to the children Israel coming back from the Exile of Babylon it was very very late I doubt that but anyway that's that's the the it's generally speaking modern scholarship once to believe honest against is a vested interest they want to believe that the the scripture books were written down many many many years after the event I mean it used to be German scholarship used to try to say the Gospels were written down 100 hundred fifty years after Jesus died and they have been absolutely they have been modern scholars have been dragged kicking and screaming you know with their fingernails you know holding on the territory hasn't been pulled away to the place where they now have to agree that all the Gospels were written within the lifetimes of the witnesses that they were all written within 20 30 40 years you know after Jesus died and the reason scholarship wants desperately to believe it happened much much much much later is they want to be able to say it's just a legendary we don't have to take it seriously so I mean it's got that the the reason I'm always a little wary of the people who try to say it was real late real they really I know that their worldview needs to believe that so I you know on the other hand my worldview you know likes to believe that it was eye witness accounts so yes Catherine yeah yeah right that's right that's right if you're reciting if you're reciting the book of Genesis you know which was it was passed down for many years and you don't get everything just right you better watch out you know get whacked on the back of the head however one thing yes but one thing it should be known is that everybody even the most skeptical modern scholars would say that Genesis 2 is a lot older than Genesis 1 now you know what's interesting about that to me is I don't know that it's true at all it but but what they would say is Genesis 2 they look at the Hebrew of it and it seems very very very old and it's it's it's it's attributed to the J author the yahwist they call him or her however and but that but if C that would fit in with what I was telling you anyway and that is that that they have original historic reporting but at some point God inspired someone to come along and say here is you know here's what it means and I you know the really weird thing is here's one more thing too about this literal thing and then we're gonna close up Genesis 2 I was I'm not gonna say this next year week so I better tell you now in Genesis 2 it's very clear that God followed a natural order there's a place where it says that that there was no vegetation yet because it hadn't rained yet okay there's a place in Genesis 2 it was I read a whole article from our old Old Testament professor Mareth line years ago wrote an article cause on Genesis 2:4 which says because it had not rained or maybe it's 2 6 and marathon asks a question he says if Genesis 2 says that you had to have rain before you had vegetation but if you go back to Genesis 1 you have vegetation before you have you know before you have the Sun the moon therefore before you have whether you have day three which means you have vegetation but day four you don't have weather yet he says now if Genesis 2 says that God did things in a natural order that he didn't do vegetation until there was rain but but in Genesis 1 we have vegetation before there was rain then you have you actually have this choice before you you can either believe that Genesis wanted to contradict each other and that we can't trust the Bible right that somebody wrote Genesis 2 and somebody wrote Genesis 1 is some idiotic editor to slap them together and they totally contradict each other and that's the way the Bible is it's just this compendium right or you can believe that Genesis 2 is is historical reportage in Genesis 1 is a poem that's your only to see this is one of the reasons why I do not believe that Genesis 1 can be taken literally because if you take it literally then you have a Bible it contradicts itself because the order in which God makes things in Genesis 2 contradicts Genesis 1 now critical scholars all along have always said sure it's because you know the Bible just plucked together by different people it's a bunch of different legends and it's you know sort of like a kind of compendium of myths but if you believe that the Bible is true then you have to believe that they're two different literary genres you have to and that's one of the reasons I do not take every part of Genesis 1 literally is because if I do it undermines the authority of the Bible ok it's very important for you to hear that for me because I'm not gonna say it next week maybe I will you know but I don't I don't plan on I've already written some of next week's sermon I don't plan on doing it because I really don't want to get dragged back into this because I think Genesis 1 2 & 3 is telling us some wonderful things but even look at a which is I'm not complaining to you but look all of our conversation has been about creation evolution not at all what Genesis 1 was written about I'm not blaming you because actually I I gave you half the sermon on it because I know that's just our context you have to speak into your context but just keep all that in mind so Genesis 2 is historical reporting and it contradicts Genesis 1 unless Genesis 1 is a song and I hope that you see some of that

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Keywords: tim keller, the bible, christianity, genesis, creation, god, religion

Id: 2L3kj5SLmjI

Length: 6min 46sec (406 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 22 2011