The Accuracy of Science and the Bible
Many people today believe there’s a dichotomy between religion, especially Genesis, and science. This belief is reinforced by both religious science deniers, like young-earth creationists, and atheistic hardliners, both of whom claim that one must deny the findings of mainstream science to be a faithful Christian. However, the broad strokes of the history recorded in Genesis 1-11 are supported by modern science. The existence of an oasis in the Persian Gulf at the dawn of human civilization which has since been lost (Gen. 2-3); a period of extreme violence in the ancient Near East (Gen. 4-6); a massive flood following this period of violence (Gen. 7-9); the spread of human civilization from the Near East to Europe and North Africa (Gen. 10); and the construction of a tower at “Babel” (Eridu) which suddenly stopped (Gen. 11).
Because of this, the Bible actually corroborates modern science, as the accuracy of the primeval history depends on the accuracy of science. The biblical description of the Persian Gulf oasis (Gen. 2-3) is extremely accurate, but only if radiocarbon dating and the methods of paleoclimatology are dependable. Likewise, the date of the Near Eastern flood (~6,500 BC) which fits the biblical account so well was determined by radiocarbon dating. Our knowledge about the period of violence and spread of human civilization from the ancient Near East depends on a reliable Y-chromosome clock, which also places the most recent ancestor of all male humans at ~250,000 years ago. [1] The data demonstrating the Uruk expansion, which fits the biblical account of the king Nimrod, relies on the accuracy of relative dating methods of archeology.
These findings of modern science also support the divine inspiration of the biblical account. A lot of the accurate information about the Persian Gulf oasis found in Genesis 2-3 isn’t found in any other ancient Near Eastern myth. Likewise, of the flood myths from the ancient Near East, the Noah myth is the only one to correctly describe the period of extreme violence in early human civilization (Gen. 6:11) discovered from genetic studies. An Israelite in the 1st millennium BC wouldn’t have known the history of construction of the E-Abzu temple in Eridu, but this is accurately reflected in the tower of Babel narrative, which also bears similarities to an obscure Sumerian epic (Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta) that would have been unknown to such an Israelite.
This implies that the biblical author(s) of the primeval history had another source, one which knew many details of early human civilization in the ancient Near East that were unknown to other peoples at the time. In my opinion, these facts are best explained if the primeval history was indeed inspired by God.
Theological Significance of Genesis 1-11
The primeval history isn’t only a chronicle of early human civilization. The narratives that make up this history were chosen for a reason, as they tell an important story about God’s relationship to humanity. The story begins with God dedicating the cosmos as his own temple and assigning its functionaries. The most important functionaries of God’s cosmic temple are humans, who are designated as “the image of God,” his representatives on earth (Gen. 1:26f). These humans are given the task of filling the earth and governing it and its creatures.
From these humans, God chooses two individuals to make his covenant with, and sets them in an oasis that he planted. (For the purposes of the story, it doesn’t matter much if Adam and Eve were taken from a population of existing humans or created ex nihilo, though the text claims the latter.) But Adam and Eve fall short of the covenant, choosing to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they were forbidden to eat from. As a result, God kicks them out of the oasis. This removes them from the tree of life, condemning them and their descendants to mortality and a life of toil.
Adam and Eve’s descendants continue to fall short of the covenant, lording over and killing each other, always acting wickedly. God decides to wipe out their civilization with a massive flood, but chooses a righteous man and his family to continue the covenant. After this flood completely reshapes their world as they knew it, God makes a new covenant with Noah’s family (Gen. 9:8ff). Once again, they immediately fall short of this covenant, when Noah’s son Ham sexually assaults his father.
As Noah’s descendants spread out over the land, some of them end up in the plains of Sumer. Once there, they immediately forget the covenant made between Yahweh and their ancestor Noah, and begin to build a city and a new temple for their pagan pantheon of gods. These arrogant people form a kingdom that spreads out and takes over the whole land (Gen. 10:8-12). As they continue to build their city and pagan temple, God confuses their speech so that they’re unable to agree on their aims. They are forced to stop building their temple, and their kingdom collapses.
But this isn’t the end of the story. Out of the people who failed God in Sumer, he chooses another man, Abram, to make another covenant. Through his descendants, the entire world will be blessed (Gen. 12:1-3). The descendants of Abram, the nation of Israel, also continually fail God and break his covenant, and are exiled to Babylon after hundreds of years of disobedience. But through it all, God promises that there will be another descendant of Abram, a prophet and king, who will save the people of Israel and the entire world (Num. 24:15-19; Deut. 18:15-19; Ps. 89:30-37; Isa. 49-53).
From this summary, we can see that the primeval history sets up humanity’s purpose in creation (the image of God) as well as their continual disobedience to God’s covenant, and God’s continual faithfulness. This foreshadows Israel’s own cycles of covenant faithfulness, disobedience, exile, and return, but it also looks forward to a time when one human will break this cycle, undo the curse and thus reconcile all of humanity to God (Gen. 3:15). The great story of Genesis 1-11, which sets the stage for the rest of the Hebrew Bible, would have the same theological significance whether or not it is historically accurate. But due to its historical accuracy, we can have faith that the primeval history, and the story it contains, is divinely inspired.
Conclusion
The primeval history of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 1-11) has been a source of contention for Christians, because it’s believed by many to contradict the findings of modern science. On the contrary, as I’ve shown through this series of posts, the biblical account lines up perfectly with what science has discovered about early human civilization in the ancient Near East! This is evidence that the primeval history, which sets the stage for the rest of the biblical story, was inspired by God. We don’t need to choose between the Bible and science; they actually reinforce each other.
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[1] Monika Karmin et al., “A recent bottleneck of Y chromosome diversity coincides with a global change in culture,” Genome Research 25, no. 4 (2015): 461.
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