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Quotes About Genesis

whereas in the rest of the ancient world creation was set up to serve the gods, a theocentric view, in Genesis, creation is not set up for the benefit of God but for the benefit of humanity—an anthropocentric view.
~ John H. Walton
we cannot translate their cosmology to our cosmology, nor should we. If we accept Genesis 1 as ancient cosmology, then we need to interpret it as ancient cosmology rather than translate it into modern cosmology. If we try to turn it into modern cosmology, we are making the text say something that it never said.
~ John H. Walton
Genesis is not metaphysically neutral—it mandates an affirmation of teleology (purpose), even as it leaves open the descriptive mechanism for material origins.
~ John H. Walton
As we begin our study of Genesis 1 then, we must be aware of the danger that lurks when we impose our own cultural ideas on the text without thinking. The Bible's message must not be subjected to cultural imperialism. Its message transcends the culture in which it originated, but the form in which the message was imbedded was fully permeated by the ancient culture. This was God's design and we ignore it at our peril.
~ John H. Walton
The precosmic condition in the Genesis account is described in Genesis 1:2 with the Hebrew expression tohu wabohu ("formless and empty").[1] No one suggests that this verse indicates that matter had not been shaped or that the cosmos described in verse 2 is empty of matter.
~ John H. Walton
On the basis of Adam's statement, combined with these data on usage, we would have to conclude that God took one of Adam's sides—likely meaning he cut Adam in half and from one side built the woman.
~ John H. Walton
Beginnings, it's said, are apt to be shadowy. So it is with this story, which starts with the emergence of a new species maybe two hundred thousand years ago. The species does not yet have a name—nothing
~ Elizabeth Kolbert
Genesis 15:5,6, the great requirement of the covenant—namely, faith—was then more fully made known.
~ Arthur W. Pink
The continual additions which God subsequently made to the revelation He gave in Genesis 3: 15 were, for a considerable time, largely through covenants He made with the fathers, covenants which were both the fruit of His eternal plan of mercy and the gradual revealing of the same unto the faithful. Only as those two facts are and held fast by us are we in any position to appreciate and perceive the force of those subordinate covenants.
~ Arthur W. Pink
In the beginning, there was movement.
~ Asanaro
There is no one creator, but there is the realm of creation.
~ Ayya Khema
Men can do nothing without the make-believe of a beginning.
~ George Eliot
I don't have a problem believing in God and Jesus. But in Genesis one has to wonder about these sentences that just go on and end without finishing. The thought is unfinished. Where did Adam go? What is he doing? Hello? There has to be some pages missing.
~ Bill Cosby
The beginning is the most important part of the work.
~ Plato
The scientific content of Genesis 1-11 holds special significance for me because it revolutionized my thinking and, thus, changed my life's direction. Until I reached my late teens, my singular passion was science, astronomy in particular. My life's purpose was to learn more about the universe; nothing beyond that really interested me.
~ Hugh Ross
So that originally, and Naturally, there is no such thing as Slavery. Joseph was rightfully no more a Slave to his brethren, then they were to him: and they no more Authority to Sell him, than they had to Slay him. [Genesis 37].
~ Samuel Sewall
There are infinite beginnings.
~ Sandra Jackson-Opoku
The lie that started it all.
~ Sara Shepard
The chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply, at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.
~ Robert Jastrow
Almost everything comes from almost nothing.
~ Henri Frederic Amiel
Great issues develop from small beginnings.
~ Norman Vincent Peale
Then assuredly the world was made, not in time, but simultaneously with time.
~ Saint Augustine
In the opening pages of Genesis, we see that our Trinitarian God made everything "good." The only thing that is not called "good" is that our first father, Adam, was alone. He had creation below him, and God above him, but no one alongside of him to walk as an equal.
~ Mark Driscoll
Tragically, when sin entered the world, human beings were separated from God and from one another. For example, in Genesis 3 we see our first parents hiding from God and one another in shame that includes confusion over their nakedness and sexuality.
~ Mark Driscoll