People have been asking questions about the early chapters of Genesis ever since they were first written—especially about what they mean and whether they should be taken literally.
To understand their meaning, we first need to know where these origin stories came from. Alan Dickin explores their histories in detail.
To grasp their meaning we need to understand their origins, but for most scholars the traditional view that they were written down by Moses is not consistent with the evidence from the texts. This causes difficulties of understanding, so that a reconsideration of the origins of the accounts is a necessary precursor to speculations about their meaning, especially in relation to the faith–science dialogue on cosmic origins. A viable explanation for the origins of the biblical creation accounts should explain the evidence for multiple documentary sources, as well as the historical origins of these sources.
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