The Days of Creation: A History of Christian Interpretation of Genesis 1:1 – 2:3

373 Pages·2019·89.527 MB·English

by  Andrew J. Brown

The Days of Creation
History of Biblical Interpretation
Series
4
ISSN 1382-4465
Deo Publishing
The DAYS
of
CREATION
ef
A History Christian Interpretation
ef
Genesis 1: 1-2:3
J.
Andrew Brown
deo
PUBLISHING
BLANDFORD FORUM
History of Biblical Interpretation Series, 4
ISSN 1382-4465
Copyright © 2014 Deo Publishing
P.O. Box 6284, Blandford Forum, Dorset DT11 1AQ, UK
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior
written permission from the publisher.
Printed by Henry Ling Ltd, at the Dorset Press, Dorchester, DT1 1HD, UK
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-905679-27-0
Contents
Acknowledgements ................................................................................... ix
Notes ........................................................................................................... x
Abbreviations ............................................................................................. xi
Chapter 1
Introduction ................................................................................................ 1
Defining the Enterprise .................................................................................. 2
Important Themes in this Story ..................................................................... 4
Related Studies and the Gap that Remains .................................................... 6
Reading Genesis Before Darwin .................................................................... 8
The Nature of Genesis 1:1-2:3 .................................................................... 10
The Interpretive Impact of Old Testament Translations ............................... 13
A View of the Landscape ............................................................................. 15
Chapter 2
The Days of Creation in the Church Fathers ....................................... 16
Introduction ................................................................................................ 16
The Existing Interpretive Smorgasbord ........................................................ 17
The Earliest Interpretations of the Creation Week ....................................... 21
The Alexandrian School's Conceptual Creation Days .................................. 16
The Cappadocian Fathers' Literal and Philosophical Creation Days .............. 31
The Antiochene and Syrian Traditions ......................................................... 35
Eastern Influences in the Latin Fathers prior to Augustine ............................ 41
Augustine's Quest for the Literal Meaning of Genesis .................................. 44
The Creation Week on the Brink of the Medieval Period ........................... 53
Conclusion .................................................................................................. 59
Chapter 3
The Days of Creation in the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance .... 60
Introduction ................................................................................................ 61
An Augustinian Creation in the Early Middle Ages ...................................... 62
The Timeless Creation ofEriugena .............................................................. 64
Three Biblical Reference Works of the Twelfth Century ............................ 66
Creation in the Commentary of the Twelfth Century. ................................. 71
The Creation Week Re-Acquainted with Time .......................................... 79
The Creation Week Re-Acquainted with Nature ........................................ 81
vi The Days ef Creation
Medieval Pluralism in Robert Grosseteste's Hexaemeron ............................. 83
Reconciling Augustine: The Great Masters of the Thirteenth Century ......... 85
The Late Medieval Synthesis: Nicholas ofLyra and Dionysius the Carthusian .... 92
The Abstract Creation Week of Two Renaissance Platonists ........................ 95
Catholic Interpretations at the Dawn of the Reformation ............................. 99
Conclusion ................................................................................................. 102
Chapter 4
The Days of Creation in the Era of the Reformation ....................... 104
Introduction ............................................................................................... 104
The Literal Creation Week of Early Reformed Scholars ............................. 107
Burying Instantaneous Creation: Jesuit Scholars .......................................... 116
The Hexaemeral Literary Tradition in the Renaissance .............................. 119
Alternate Stances: Genesis One Encrypted .................................................. 121
Alternate Sources: Genesis One Excluded .................................................. 128
The Literal Creation of Early British Protestants ......................................... 132
The Hexaemeral Framework of the Mirror Literature ................................ 137
The Creation Week in Chronologies and Universal Histories .................... 138
Hints ofDeep Time in Figurative Creation Week Understandings ............. 144
The Role of Genesis One in Early Modem Geotheories ............................ 150
The Impact of Burnet' s Theory on Creation Week Belief. ......................... 155
William Whiston's New Genesis-Based Geotheory .................................... 162
Conclusion ................................................................................................. 165
Chapter 5
The Days of Creation and the Ambition of Reason in the Eighteenth
Century ............................................................................................... 167
Introduction ............................................................................................... 16 7
The Influence of Whiston's New Theory and the Defence of Moses .......... 171
The Bearing of Diluvial Theories on the Interpretation of Genesis One ..... 17 6
Departures from Diluvialism ....................................................................... 178
Expanding the Creation Week: Examples Prior to Mid-Century ................ 185
The Fading Flower: Eighteenth-Century Biblical Universal Histories ......... 188
Eighteenth-Century Mystical Interpretation of Genesis .............................. 192
The Rise of the Ruin-Restitution Hypothesis ............................................ 194
Genesis 1 as the Primordial Human Document .......................................... 197
Pioneerin$ Concordist Proposals ................................................................ 201
Buffon's Epoques ........................................................................................ 205
De Luc's Lettres ......................................................................................... 210
Long Creation Days in the Late Eighteenth Century .................................. 214
Conclusion ................................................................................................. 218
Chapter 6
Nineteenth-Century Interpretation of the Days of Creation until the
Origin of Species and Essays and Reviews ............................................ 219
Introduction ............................................................................................... 219
The Emerging Impact of Biblical Criticism ................................................ 221
The Day-Age Approach in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain and France .. 224
Contents Vll
The Gap Theory and Surviving Chaos Concepts ....................................... 232
Granville Penn and the Geology of Moses ................................................. 236
The Day-Age and Gap Theories in Early Nineteenth-Century America .... 238
Mid-Century Developments in the Day-Age Theory ................................ 244
The Day-Age Views of Dana, Guyot and Dawson ..................................... 251
The Idealist Alternative to Realist Concordism .......................................... 254
Conservative Anti-Concordism in the 1850s .............................................. 259
Harmony or Variance: The Concordist Debate in the 1850s ...................... 264
The Climax of the Debate over Concordism around 1860 ......................... 269
Postlude: Darwin's Origin of Species and Debates over Genesis One after
1860 ..................................................................................................... 279
Chapter 7
The Shape of the History of Christian Interpretation of Genesis 1:1-
2:3 ....................................................................................................... 280
A Story of Depth ....................................................................................... 280
A Story of Difference ................................................................................. 284
A Story with a Trajectory: The Influential Career of Genesis One ............. 286
Re-utilizing the Interpretive Tradition ...................................................... 290
Bibliography ............................................................................................ 298
Indexes
Index of Primary Texts Authors, Ancient Figures and Movements Named for
Figures ................................................................................................. 335
Index of Modern Authors (select) .............................................................. 341
Index of Subjects ....................................................................................... 344
Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Texts .............................................. 359

Acknowledgments
This study began life as a PhD thesis at the University of Queensland,
Brisbane, Australia. After nine and a half long years of study I complet
ed the task in mid-2011. If I learned anything from the process, and I
feel as if I certainly did, it was that anybody with any kind of intellec
tual aspirations in the Western world before about 1800 felt obliged to
write a piece on Gen. 1:1-2:3, and these 'pieces' could run up to, in
extreme instances, 800 pages of densely written text, often, inconven
iently, in a language other than English. This was a foolish choice from
a manageability point of view, but fascinating for all of that, and I feel
as if this enterprise baptized me into a much fuller understanding of the
Genesis text, of Christian teaching about creation, of biblical herme
neutics, and of the history of thinking about world origins in the West.
I would like first to thank my wife, Naomi, for not only tolerating
this time-consuming undertaking but for actually, as is her gift, taking
an active and intelligent interest in the whole study. She always re
mained confident that the task could be completed, and I thank her for
her faithfulness and her faith in me.
I thank my supervisors at the University of Queensland, first Edgar
Conrad, then Peter Harrison, and finally Philip Almond. I also re
ceived help from Davis Young, who read more than one draft and
gave helpful comments, along with Ted Davis with his encouraging
feedback in the later stages. I received language help from several
friends and relatives, including Susan Richaudeau, Helen Bennett, Sue
Kok, Alex Reynolds, Klaus and Gayle Gelewski, and Les Ball.
Finally, I would never have completed this study without the gener
ous support of my employing church for 2005-2010, Murwillumbah
Baptist Church in northeastern NSW, Australia, who granted me periods
of part- and full-time leave with financial support, and whose members
Andy and Jo Page and Joe and Joanne Biles provided quiet study areas. I
would never have finished the work had it not been for their help.
Any mistakes that remain, as they say, are all mine!
Soli Deo Gloria.
Notes
I refer where it seems appropriate to ancient, medieval and Renais
sance texts under translated titles in the interests of user-friendliness;
scholars will recognize the works and readily call to mind the original
titles, which I cite in the footnotes.
Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own, and I have lim
ited the citation of original text to the mention of strategic terms.
Those interested in checking the original wording in full are invited to
utilize the references given.