A small contribution to just what evangelical scholars believe the Bible teaches about creation and the flood.

People might be interested in a related story about commentaries on Genesis.

About six years ago, after I had started working in Chaplaincy Services at the University of Queensland, another group of first-year students complained that evolution was being taught in some of their anatomy classes and “creation”, as they termed it, ignored. They went as far as getting up a petition requesting that “creation” be given some time in the lectures.

This request was, of course, denied – and Christian academic staff members were among the first to support the exclusion of creationism, knowing what discredit it would bring on their witness.

This came up at the Senate Chaplaincy Committee, and the chaplains were asked for help about the issue. I wasn’t at the meeting (being only classified as a “Chaplain’s Assistant” I don’t attend committee meetings, for which I’m very thankful).

After the meeting one of the Chaplains asked me to go over to A (Conservative) Christian Bookshop and purchase about $50 worth of commentaries on Genesis for the Chaplaincy Services library, which can be used – and borrowed from – by staff and students.

I was asked to avoid things written from a creationist point of view, since the University library aready had a number of these.

I duly went and cast an eye over the Bible Commentaries section in the shop.

I looked at every commentary on Genesis on the shelves.

I wasn’t too surprised to discover that I needn’t have been told to avoid “creationist” commentaries – there weren’t any.

At other times I’ve noticed “The Genesis Record” by Henry M. Morris on the shelves, but it wasn’t there at that time. And I’d have avoided that anyway – I read commentaries written by theologians, not ones written by civil engineers.

The upshot was that Chaplaincy Services now has three commentaries on Genesis written by evangelical theologians.

As well as a few books on science and religion for students to consult.

Now for my personal library.

I have a number of Bible commentaries on my bookshelves, and have tended to concentrate on commentaries on Genesis.

The following lists modern ones – written over the last forty years – by evangelical scholars.

It is significant that none of these support six-day creation or a world-wide, in the modern sense of “world-wide”, flood. Some of them even have sections with theological arguments against these two basic tenets of creationism.

If anyone is aware of any commentaries, written by evangelical theologians, which support six-day creationism, I would be glad to hear about them – author(s), title, publisher and date would be sufficient to identify them.

And only commentaries written over the last 55 years, please. This period covers the elucidation of the structure of DNA in biology, the revolution wrought by plate tectonics in geology, and the discovery of the cosmic microwave background in cosmology.

Atkinson, David: “The Message of Genesis 1–11: The Dawn of Creation”, Inter-Varsity Press, 1990. (The Bible Speaks Today series).

Eaton, Michael: “Preaching Through The Bible: Genesis 1-11″, Sovereign World, 1997. (Preaching Through The Bible series).

Gowan, Donald E.: “From Eden to Babel: A Commentary on the Book of Genesis 1-11″, Eerdmans, 1988. (International Theological Commentary series).

Hartley, John E.: “Genesis”, Hendrickson Publishers, 2000. (New International Biblical Commentary series).

Jensen, Phillip D. and Payne, Tony: “Beyond Eden: Genesis 1-11″, Matthias Media, 1990.

Johnson, Richard and Tricia: “Discovering Genesis”, Crossway Books, 2001. (Crossway Bible Guides series).

Kidner, Derek: “Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary”, Tyndale Press, 1967. (Tyndale Old testament Commentaries series).

Malins, Ian: “In the Beginning: Studies in Genesis”, Christian Books Melanesia Inc., 1985.

Ward, Rowland S.: “Foundations in Genesis: Genesis 1-11 Today”, New Melbourne Press, 1998.

Wilkinson, David: “The Message of Creation: Encountering the Lord of the Universe”, Inter-Varsity Press, 2002. (The Bible Speaks Today series).

Youngblood, Ronald F.: “The Book of Genesis: An Introductory Commentary”, second edition, Baker Book House, 1991. A greatly expanded revision of his two earlier commentaries “How It All Began: Genesis 1-11″ and “Faith of Our Fathers: Genesis 12-50″.

Salaam

Dr Ken Smith

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