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New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 811, 11 February 1955, Page 5

Sir-In the controversy about Genesis and geology (J. Malton Murray and "C.P." wrote on the subject on January 28), I wish to make three points which I hope will be food for thought. (1) Contemporary nafratives casually mention contemporary circumstances. In Genesis 4, it is recorded that Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. When Cain killed Abel, he was banished. This he feared, lest any who found him might slay him. Eventually he found a wife, and built a city; Thus it should be obvious that, at the time of Adam and Eve, other human beings of the same inter-breeding species as themselves inhabited the earth. The first chapter of Genesis records the creation of man, male and female, without reference to date, or to the number of pairs created. The many ancient human fossils, from Piltdown onwards, may have belonged to representatives of this creation. The second chapter of Genesis records the creation of Adam and Eve, whom Bishop Ussher places about 4000 B.C. (2) The above date was estimated by adding the lengths of lives in the carefully preserved genealogies, from Adam to Christ. The story of Genesis 3 is the story of Adam’s refusal of God’s will as the best way of doing things. In this chapter is the promise of the Redeemer, the "seed of the woman." I regard Adam and Eve as having been chosen for a special purpose, as was Abraham 2000 years later, and running through the Old Testament narrative is the story of preparing a people for the coming of Christ. (3) P. J. Wiseman in his books New Discoveries in Babylonia About Genesis and Creation Revealed in Six Days, outlined a very reasonable theory which explains much. In Babylonia clay tablets each ended with a colophon, which gave the title, the writer, and perhaps place and date, and, if the tablet was one of a series, whether it finished the series or not. There is no space here to elaborate Wiseman’s argument, but he shows that Moses may have had a number of tablets written by eye-witnesses, handed down from generation to generation, the colophons appearing in the Genesis narrative. He regards Genesis 1: 1 to 2: 4 as a series of tablets, in which God revealed to a man in six days lessons about the creation of the heavens and the earth, and Genesis 2: 1-4 as the colophon which states that the series of tablets is finished. The lesson of the first day was that God made the heavens and the earth. On the second day it was taught that God made a firmament, or atmosphere, to separate the waters on the earth from those in the clouds. On the third day it was taught that the seas were separated from the dry land. On the fourth day, the Instructor reverted to the sub-

ject of the heavens and the earth, and discussed how the sun, moon and stars were made; On the fifth day the lesson showed how the firmament was stocked with flying creatures, and the sea with marine animals. The tablet of the sixth day describes how beasts and man were created, toepopulate the dry Jand. I suggest that Mr. Malton Murray and others give careful study to Wiseman’s books before they discard Genesis as unworthy of credence bv educated

people.

D. S.

MILNE

(Lower Hutt).

(This correspondence is now closed.-Ed.)