Interpreting Genesis

There are many methods of interpreting Genesis, however the Bible was not given to Man as a science textbook.

Dennis Prager has published a set of brilliant Biblical commentaries he calls “The Rational Bible”. These books offer some excellent insights into the relationship between Torah and science. Dennis explains that:

“The notion that the Genesis Creation story must agree with science is itself untenable. . .we have no idea what science will say about cosmology in a hundred years. . .The purpose of Genesis Chapter 1 is not to teach science. It is to teach about God, man, and nature. . .”1

There are many authentic Torah sources that describe the Biblical creation event as “beriyah yesh miayin”, i.e. creation ex-nihilo, meaning creation from absolutely nothing. By definition, such a creation process is scientifically unintelligible to Man. Science is able to a limited extent to recognize a sequence of events in the Creation process, and also to comprehend the created Universe after the creation process was completed by God. But the mechanism of the creation process itself cannot be scientifically intelligible to Man.

The first few chapters of the Bible are intending to convey certain facts, such as the knowledge that God created the Universe, and that a sequence of events occurred, but the Bible is not attempting to explain the mechanism(s) God employed to achieve the Creation. In a number of places in the Talmud, the Talmud explains that “the Torah speaks the language of man.” This can be understood to mean that some Biblical language cannot be interpreted literally, or else some Biblical language is concealing secrets that are beyond the comprehension of Man. A Creation process is being described in Genesis, but we should not assume that Genesis is a science textbook. The purpose of the Bible is to convey God’s commandments, ethics, and wisdom to man, but the Bible is not intended to convey scientific knowledge to Man.

We also should consider that scientific theories have been constantly subjected to revision over time. It is simply unnecessary that we attempt to achieve a detailed correlation between current scientific theories of the origins of the Universe, and the events described in Genesis.

The fundamental events of the Creation are being described in non-scientific language in Genesis, but they do not conflict with the basic scientific evidence that has been discovered. The first animals created in Genesis were simple marine invertebrate in modern language, and afterwards there was a steady increase in complexity of the created animals until finally Man appeared. The fossil record also indicates such a progression occurred starting with the simplest creatures until finally Man arrived. Man represents the pinnacle of the Creation, and is the most complex of the beings created on Earth. What is important is that we recognize the special role granted to Man in the Creation.