Professor Walton:
By what evidence do you establish that THE ANCIENT HEBREW MIND:
(1) made a uniform distinction between physical materiality that has no existence and physical functionality that is, itself, existence
(2) could permit a thing to be named—a significant act in that culture—as the earth is named in verse 2, when the thing has no existence
(3) could permit a thing that has no existence to be described as the earth is described in verse 2
(4) would take verse 2 to be backward-looking to a time—before creation—when the passage as a whole seems to be forward-looking as a description of creation.
On the last point—whether the opening phrase in verse 1 is translated “in the beginning”, “when God began to create”, or “in the period when God created”—it seems that verse 2 is describing conditions as they were at that time, not as they were before that time. The least that can be said is, no fundamental objection can be raised to seeing the forward-perspective of the entire passage, including verse 2. Do you agree?
Professor Walton:
By what evidence do you establish that THE ANCIENT HEBREW MIND:
(1) made a uniform distinction between physical materiality that has no existence and physical functionality that is, itself, existence
(2) could permit a thing to be named—a significant act in that culture—as the earth is named in verse 2, when the thing has no existence
(3) could permit a thing that has no existence to be described as the earth is described in verse 2
(4) would take verse 2 to be backward-looking to a time—before creation—when the passage as a whole seems to be forward-looking as a description of creation.
On the last point—whether the opening phrase in verse 1 is translated “in the beginning”, “when God began to create”, or “in the period when God created”—it seems that verse 2 is describing conditions as they were at that time, not as they were before that time. The least that can be said is, no fundamental objection can be raised to seeing the forward-perspective of the entire passage, including verse 2. Do you agree?