Literalists vs. Contextualist

 “The bible means exactly what it says.” --William Jennings Bryan  Not all literalists agree: Example: What is a day? 1. Jehovah Witnesses – a day can be interpreted as a “era” 2. Church of God – a day must mean 24 hours

 A literal biblical calendar – creation took place 6,000 years ago  Literalists have a bigger problem – two stories of creation

 First, a lesson on body language!

 To understand the creation stories, one must first understand the people and their beliefs : 1.were polytheistic - worshipped the sun, moon, stars, even animals 2.creation happened by chance 3.believed the body was evil – it warred against itself 4.considered all the days of the week to be of equal importance This is the context in which the creation stories were written.

 First creation story -- Genesis 1: all – 2: 1-4  Second creation story – Genesis 2: