Monday, January 3, 2011
Biblical Chronology
In today's headings and commentary, I was especially struck by the author's emphasis on timeframes and chronology. He seems to be very interested in keeping track of the years since creation. I've never seen such a detailed description of how long Noah and his family were in the ark. Do you think such an establishment of timeframes and chronology is useful, or does it distract from the message of the Biblical text?
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Kristi,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you brought this up because I too find it distracting. I love the approach of looking at the bible as a historical document because of course it's probably the most important historical document we have, however I think you hit the bullseye when you said it distracts from the biblical message. It is pretty interesting. I actually enjoyed the author's dialogue from yesterday's reading philosophizing the reasons and causes for length of age. It was pretty entertaining.
Isn't it incredible, though, that the world went downhill so fast? We're talking 1,600 or so years, 10 generations, and only one family still believes. Since then the earth has been around at least another 4,000 years and there are many more faithful on earth. I wonder why. I can only think God let things get that before the flood as a lesson of his just wrath against sin (the flood is referenced in this way in the New Testament). Then after the flood God began establishing and closely interacting with the Jewish nation through whom would come the Savior. And since the Savior many have been coming to faith--but the numbers will dwindle at the end just before the final judgment. Only speculation...but interesting to think about.
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