This is Scripture Roundtable 53 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson #3, The Creation, focusing on scriptures in Moses 1-2, Abraham 4-5, and Genesis 1-2, bringing in various insights to help us better understand the scriptures. These roundtables will generally follow the 2014 Gospel Doctrine schedule of scriptures, a few weeks ahead of time.
Panelists for this roundtable include Stephen Smoot, Mike Parker, Jeffrey Bradshaw, and Martin Tanner.
This roundtable is also available as an audio podcast, and will be included in the podcast feed. You can listen by pressing the play button or download the podcast below:
Podcast: Download (Duration: 53:56 — 18.5MB)
I’m not sure anyone will look at this as this is an ‘old’ round table but if someone does I’ve been reading David Bokovoy’s book Authoring -the Old Testament Genesis-Deuteronomy.
He makes the observation about God in Genesis Chapter 1 as Elohim and Lord God in Chapter 2 as Yahweh Elohim…is one the Father and the other the Son? One doing the Spiritual Creation the other the Temporal ?
Can anyone forward me Davids email?
In general, the order of creation in Genesis is consistent with the order of creation in standard Earth creation theory. One example often mentioned as being out of order is the creation of the “lights” in the heavens on Day 4. The Sun and Moon were probably formed about the same time, although there are some theories of later Moon capture. But, what about the stars?
While there were older stars, almost all of the 100 brightest stars (those that are thought of when we think of “lights in the heavens” are much younger than the Earth. Sirius–the brightest star from the perspective of the Earth–was probably formed 320 million years ago, which is much younger than the nearly 5 billion years of the Sun and Earth. Some are estimated in the 10s of millions of years. Alpha Centuri A and B were formed about the same time as the Sun (maybe slightly older–5 to 6 billion years). They were probably formed from the same cloud that formed the Sun. Arcturus may be another exception, the Orange Giant is sometimes estimated as up to 10 billion years and sometimes less. But, almost all the brightest stars are young compared to the Earth and Sun. I don’t think Genesis, Moses, or Abraham are talking about all stars in the universe, but rather those visible from the Earth and in particular the brightest.
Very few of the 6000 visible stars are smaller in absolute terms than the Sun. These include Epsilon Eridani and Epsilon Indii, both young compared to the Sun. They also include Tau Ceti and 61 Cygni, which are about the same age or slightly older than the Sun and Earth and may also have been formed from the same cloud that formed the Sun and Earth.
Could I get the Ginzberg reference regarding the tabernacle and creation. Very fascinating, I’d never made that connection.
Thanks!
I don’t know if this is exactly what he’s referring to, but it’s what I found when I ran a search… http://www.templethemes.net/publications/Meridian/100114-The%20Creation%20and%20the%20Garden%20of%20Eden%20as%20Temple%20Models.pdf
This was really helpful in my lesson preparation, thanks!
There was a question about the reference for one of the quotes from Spencer W. Kimball.
“The Creators breathed into their nostrils the breath of life and man and woman became living souls. We don’t know exactly how their coming into this world happened, and when we’re able to understand it the Lord will tell us”
(Church Educational System, Religion 327, p. 9;
S. W. Kimball, Blessings, emphasis added).
Kimball, Spencer W.
“The blessings and responsibilities of womanhood.”
Ensign 6, March 1976, 70-73.
Hi Scripture Roundtable I really like the discussions, thank you for posting this awesome idea.