Book Description

One of this book’s main themes is how God’s ‘Book of Nature’ is concordant with His ‘Book of Scripture’. In their writings, many of the pioneers of the Scientific Revolution often referred to God’s two ‘Books’. These brilliant naturalists were also devout Christians. But that was back then. Is modern science actually compatible with Scripture? More to the point, are the findings of 21st-century science concordant with the Genesis creation story? What else does the text of Genesis 1-2 have to say? While making an honest effort to answer those questions, some vitally-important theological concepts (which were introduced by Moses in the first two chapters of Genesis) are also examined and discussed in this volume. This comprehensive study (on how modern science is concordant with the intended meaning of the text of Genesis 1-2) has many useful features, including the following: Much of the first two parts of the book consists of background material on: (1) logic, (2) history and philosophy of science, and (3) ‘scientific method’, as well as (4) basic geological principles, (5) descriptions of Plate Tectonic theory, and (6) the principles and methods of radiometric dating. This background material is designed to help the reader to understand the implications of the empirical evidence presented in Part Two: God’s Book of Nature. Similarly, there is also extensive material on: (1) Biblical interpretation and hermeneutics, (2) textual criticism, (3) the history of ancient Israel, (4) development of the Hebrew language, and (5) some of the basic elements of Biblical Hebrew. This material is given prior to looking at the literary structure and genre of the Genesis 1-2 text, and then conducting thorough and complete exegetical analyses of the various textual units of Genesis 1-2 in Part Four: God’s Book of Scripture. Prior to the exegetical analyses for each of the textual units of Genesis 1-2, (1) the Biblical Hebrew text, (2) a standard English translation, and (3) an Interlinear version of the text of that unit are provided. The Interlinear version consists of (a) the Hebrew text, with (b) SBL transliterations and (c) English glosses below each one of the Hebrew words. Color coding and other types of annotations/highlighting are used throughout Part Four: God’s Book of Scripture, in order to help the reader identify important Biblical Hebrew elements, including recurring phrases, important BH words, and key BHVS verb forms. There are more than 2000 detailed footnotes. Many of these footnotes also cross-reference other topics in the book to make it easier for the reader to refer back to a discussion of some important theme or concept. Excerpts from the entries of reputable Hebrew and Greek lexicons (for words written in the original languages of the Biblical text) are also footnoted. An Appendix is included with a Key to Transliteration and Pronunciation for Biblical Hebrew graphemes; it also has a short section on Biblical Hebrew Accent Markings. Numerous detailed, colored figures are sprinkled throughout the text. In many of these figures, the artwork itself is worth the inexpensive price of the digital edition of this book. Part Six: The Good News is worth reading as a stand-alone exposition of God’s Grace, but it also helps put the rest of the book in context. Although the most common (and logical) way to read A Fresh Look at Genesis 1-2 is from start to finish, this 1100-page book was also intended to be used as a reference work. Footnotes direct the reader back to pertinent material in preceding chapters that might not have been read already (or that readers might want to revisit, in order to refresh their memory on some topic). More information is available at https://a-fresh-look-at-genesis.org