Myth-interpreting the Bible

In the 1800s, scholars began deciphering the tablets found in the ancient libraries of Nineveh and Nippur. These writings created a buzz in the archaeological community because they contained many similarities to the account of creation and the Flood found in the Bible’s Old Testament. Because these same scholars believed the Nineveh writings predated the biblical accounts, they also theorized that the Bible was derived from Ancient Near Eastern texts. While many liberal Christian scholars held to these secular ideas, other scholars have attempted to show that the biblical text stands on its own as a verifiable and credible account of history. In recent times, other scholars have suggested that we can only understand the first chapters of Genesis in light of the Ancient Near Eastern cultures as the original setting for the text. This presentation answers questions about how we might approach this extra-biblical material and assess it in terms of the historical narrative of Genesis.

Steve Ham (MDiv.), former AiG senior director of international outreach, joined Answers in Genesis in 2009. He now serves as senior pastor for Hyde Park Baptist Church near Cincinnati. In this presentation, Ham discusses the dangerous, fast-growing compromise teaching– espoused by John Walton and other–which "mythologizes" the Bible's creation account.