(June 7, 2012 at 12:10 am)Aiza Wrote: The idea of Genesis being metaphorical goes back to AT LEAST St. Augustine of Hippo (as he's the first Christian writer I know who discussed the symbolism of the passage, but there may also be Jewish writers who came earlier).
I don't know about "staged creation" but it's always been obvious that the 2 creation stories in Genesis cannot be eyewitness accounts just by definition.
I guess what I am saying is that its not at all new. Biblical literalism is, if anything, the newer of the two approaches.
Have you ever wondered if the Gospels were written as allegories like Genesis was? Recently, I've found it very odd that there seem to be these perfectly structured events that happen throughout the Gospels. I've given the example before of the two thieves that were on the crosses with Jesus. Why is it that one just happened to believe and the other disbelieve, as opposed to both or neither believe? One believing and the other disbelieving is the most useful combination for some sort of teaching. If you pay close attention this happens a lot in the whole Bible actually. Rather odd, no?
P.s. an example in the OT: the prisoners that were locked up with Joseph in Genesis 40 had two different interpretations of their dreams. One lives and the other dies.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle
