What Kind of Bible Story Is The Biblical Creation Story?

What kind of Bible story is the biblical creation story in Genesis 1-3? The previous post, Are Bible Stories Really Stories?, identifies three distinct meanings of the word “story” in English. A “story” can be a true account of an event. A “story” can be a fictional story, which you as a reader or listener know is a work of fiction. A “story” can also refer to a lie that is represented as the truth. In the next post, we’ll come back to whether there is only one Genesis creation story or two Genesis creation stories in Genesis 1-3.

What Is This Bible Story?

In classical rhetoric, before you can make any sort of case about your topic, you need to ask a fundamental question, What is it? (quid sit). This is part of the discovery process you go through before you can make any sort of argument about your topic. You have to figure out first “what it is” before you can make any claim about it.

Genre of Genesis Creation Stories

Another way to ask the same question is to ask, What is the genre of Genesis 1-3? Genre refers to the type of story it is. Genre is the difference between a fairy tale and a historical documentary, the difference between a romance novel and a murder mystery.

How did the author or authors of Genesis 1-3 intend you to understand what you are reading? Were you supposed to treat it as factual history? Were you supposed to read it as a fictional account? Or was the author trying to put something over on you, to deceive you by writing something false that you are supposed to believe is true.

Why The “What Is It?” Question Comes First

The question of “what is it” is the fundamental question that will determine just about everything else about what you or anyone else thinks or believes about this story.

This “what is it?” question is the reason why some people insist that “creationism” is scientific fact and insist that it be taught in school rather than the “theory of evolution,” and why other people see no conflict between the scientific theory of evolution and faith in this story as theologically true but not scientifically true.

(By the way, the word “theory” in science is as frequently misunderstood as the word “myth.” Both are quid sit issues, with dramatically different meanings depending on what you think each word means.)

My point here is that any discussion about the creation story/stories in the Bible begins with begins (and usually ends) with quid sit—what is it?

For Your Freedom,

Kalinda

Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson

The Story Transformer