MEMO:The Lost World of Genesis One
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Author: Walton, John H.
著者はWheaton Collegeの旧約聖書学の教授。面白そう。すぐには時間は取れないけれど（泣）、読みたい本リストに入れておこう。
バイオロゴス・ファウンデーションのダレル・ファーク博士もレビューを書いている。
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InterVarsity Press, a Christian publishing company, recently published a fascinating book by John Walton, a theological studies professor at Wheaton College. In The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, Walton explores the origin of what many would consider the ultimate origins-story. He reminds us that Genesis one was originally written for the nation of Israel. To understand this divinely inspired message to ancient Israel, not only do we have to translate the Hebrew into present-day English, but we must try to understand the cultural context of the people for whom it was written. What questions were those people asking, and how did Genesis I provide them with answers to those questions? Just as the Denali origins-stories don't provide answers to the questions no one is asking when they see the park, so Walton argues that we need to understand those questions, translate the language into ours and mentally insert ourselves into the ancient culture to hear it through their ears in order to fully grasp the original Hebrew origins stories.Walton also examines the origins stories of the surrounding cultures. He indicates that none of these stories address questions about the origin of material or the origin of plants and animals. None of these stories address questions about how the universe came into existence. They do, however, answer questions about how the universe's current cosmic order arose. They address questions about how the ancient gods acquired their current functions in the universe, and they answer questions about how people fit into the picture. The presence of material -- of animals, plants and people -- is just assumed. The questions we ask today about origins, says Walton, were not being asked at that time.
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The ancient Israelites, Walton says, would have understood Genesis I to be literally true. But it was not the story of the beginning of the cosmos or the beginning of life. It was the story of how all of this came to be ordered by God, functioning in God's kingdom. It was their divinely inspired answer to the question that everyone around them was asking. Although in our materially focused culture we want to know how and when the stuff of the universe originated, this was of no interest to the ancient people; it is likely they never even thought to ask it.
Although many people in today's society insist we take Genesis I literally, Walton says that in the true, literal reading, the story is not about cosmological or biological origins at all. The Bible, he says, is actually silent about this. He tells us that true respect for the authority of Scripture means that we don't demand that it answer questions it was not addressing.
