Sunday, December 08, 2013

NT cosmography


Recently, some "evangelical" scholars have been promoting the notion that Gen 1 reflects an obsolete cosmography: the three-story universe. One problem with this claim is that the NT recycles the same type of imagery. And the problem this causes for that claim is that cosmographic conceptions weren't static over time. As we move through the OT era and into the NT era, there were changing cosmographic models, viz. Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Heracleitus, Xenophanes, Empedocles, Hipparchus, Ptolemy. To the extent that NT writers simply copy OT imagery, despite altered models of the universe, this suggests that they are simply making tradition use of stock imagery without regard to its literal descriptive power. 

3 comments:

  1. Steve, I appreciate your tack on this issue. There is no reason to reinterpret the Bible based on modern science. The prophets and apostles weren't trying to teach science. They were merely using the visible dimension of creation to teach about its invisible dimension. And what's visible to the naked human eye hasn't changed since ancient times. Therefore, we are free to learn from the Scriptures whether we have a degree in science or not.

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  2. So if a NT author means one thing, that retroactively means an OT author meant it in the same way?

    And because other people in the NT era had updated beliefs that means the NT authors did as well?

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    1. WOE:

      "So if a NT author means one thing, that retroactively means an OT author meant it in the same way?"

      That wasn't the argument. Try to think.

      "And because other people in the NT era had updated beliefs that means the NT authors did as well?"

      It's a question of what can or can't be presumed. Try to think.

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