Is the Creation Account in Genesis One an Historical Account or a Myth?

1Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,

2“Who is this who darkens counsel

by words without knowledge?

3Brace yourself like a man,

for I will question you, then you answer me!

4“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Declare, if you have understanding.

5Who determined its measures, if you know?

Or who stretched the line on it?

6What were its foundations fastened on?

Or who laid its cornerstone,

7when the morning stars sang together,

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8“Or who shut up the sea with doors,

when it broke out of the womb,

9when I made clouds its garment,

and wrapped it in thick darkness,

10marked out for it my bound,

set bars and doors,

11and said, ‘You may come here, but no further.

Your proud waves shall be stopped here’?

12“Have you commanded the morning in your days,

and caused the dawn to know its place,

13that it might take hold of the ends of the earth,

and shake the wicked out of it?

14It is changed as clay under the seal,

and presented as a garment.

15From the wicked, their light is withheld.

The high arm is broken.

16“Have you entered into the springs of the sea?

Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?

17Have the gates of death been revealed to you?

Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

18Have you comprehended the earth in its width?

Declare, if you know it all.

19“What is the way to the dwelling of light?

As for darkness, where is its place,

20that you should take it to its bound,

that you should discern the paths to its house?

21Surely you know, for you were born then,

and the number of your days is great!

22Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,

or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

23which I have reserved against the time of trouble,

against the day of battle and war?

24By what way is the lightning distributed,

or the east wind scattered on the earth?

25Who has cut a channel for the flood water,

or the path for the thunderstorm,

26to cause it to rain on a land where there is no man,

on the wilderness, in which there is no man,

27to satisfy the waste and desolate ground,

to cause the tender grass to grow?

28Does the rain have a father?

Or who fathers the drops of dew?

29Whose womb did the ice come out of?

Who has given birth to the gray frost of the sky?

30The waters become hard like stone,

when the surface of the deep is frozen.

31“Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades,

or loosen the cords of Orion?

32Can you lead the constellations out in their season?

Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?

33Do you know the laws of the heavens?

Can you establish its dominion over the earth?

34“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

that abundance of waters may cover you?

35Can you send out lightnings, that they may go?

Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

36Who has put wisdom in the inward parts?

Or who has given understanding to the mind?

37Who can count the clouds by wisdom?

Or who can pour out the containers of the sky,

38when the dust runs into a mass,

and the clods of earth stick together?

39“Can you hunt the prey for the lioness,

or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

40when they crouch in their dens,

and lie in wait in the thicket?

41Who provides for the raven his prey,

when his young ones cry to God,

and wander for lack of food?

Topical Study | Gen 1:1 | Hershel Wayne House

There is controversy today in the Christian community far more important than differences among believers in many decades regarding the nature of the Genesis account in Genesis 1, 2, & 3. Liberal scholars have generally believed the creation account was not truly representative of an actual event but embraced a Darwinist explanation of the creation of the world (what is often called macro-evolution), that contends that all of life on earth developed from very small forms of life that were created by an accident in the primordial fluids of ancient earth billions of years ago. Even so, the current debate extends much further than believing in long periods for the creation days and even accepting some form of evolution. The current debate is whether Adam and Eve and the events transpiring around them in the biblical account ever occurred and whether Genesis is only a myth rather than factual history.

Christians, through most of Christian history (and the Jewish people before Christianity), have embraced a literal and factual creation by God that is found in Genesis 1, as well as the more detailed creation of humans in Genesis 2. In current Christianity, several scholars, who are generally conservative in most areas of theology, are advocating that the Genesis One account is, in reality, a myth or fiction. Moreover, there is a rejection of an actual Adam and Eve, a temptation and fall, and many of the events in the book of Genesis and elsewhere in the Old Testament. Allegedly, God only inspired a mythical account that provided a story in which He could teach an inerrant truth about Himself being the ultimate Creator of the universe.

However, there are several reasons to reject this manner of interpreting Genesis. First, this alternate view is contrary to the understanding of various persons in the Old Testament, Jesus, the apostles, and the church for most of its history. Second, though the factual account of creation and the fall arguably contains some poetic features, the essence is a true and historical account that is consistent with the mainstream scientific understanding of the chronology of the creative events. Additionally, the biblical account of creation is not in agreement with Ancient Near East creation stories, upon which many current scholars rely in rejecting the factual, historical account found in Scripture, as well as the uniqueness of the Genesis account of creation. As the literary scholar C. S. Lewis once stated, "Myth comes from history and not history from myth."

I would encourage you to view the free YouTube video, Is Genesis History? Click https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UM82qxxskZE&feature=youtu.be in the browser of your phone, iPad, or Computer for this excellent discussion of the historicity of the book of Genesis.

The writers of the Bible believed in the historical doctrine of the creation of the world and the specific creation of Adam and Eve. The Bible contains about 300 verses on creation.

Gen 1:1-27; 2:1-23; 3:1, 19, 23; 5:1, 2; 6:6, 7; 7:4; 9:6

Exod 4:11, 32; 14:21; 20:11; 31:17

Job 4:7; 9:8, 9; 10:8; 26:7; 28:6; 31:15; 32:22; 33:4, 6, 7; 34:15; 38:4-6; 40:15