Quotes about Biblical

Seeing the similarities between these two stories should discourage us from expecting the Adam story to contribute to contemporary scientific debates about human origins (let alone guide those debates). Likewise, the similarities between Genesis and Atrahasis suggest that the biblical account cannot be labeled "historical," at least not in any conventional sense of the word.

And taking seriously the historically shaped biblical portrayal of a violent God drives us to ask for ourselves, "Is this what God is like?

Watching how the biblical writers looked at faith as trust rather than certainty helps us through our inevitable uh-oh moments from a different perspective. These moments are not proof that faith doesn't work, but only that a certain kind of faith doesn't work—one that needs correct thinking in order to survive (chapter 6).

We miss what the biblical writers were after if we think of belief and faith as "correct thinking" words. They are deep and hard words, more than we might have been led to expect. And they are beautiful words that move us deeper into the presence of God.

Wherever biblical writers talk about the past, we should expect them to be shaping the past as well.

The point of all this is that the book of Exodus as we know it simply could not be as old as the thirteenth century BCE, and could not have been written by Moses.

How do biblical writers talk about the past?

And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, to separate the waters from the waters.”

God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

God called the dry land “earth,” and the gathering of waters He called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

The name of the first river is Pishon; it winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

The name of the second river is Gihon; it winds through the whole land of Cush.