were there dinosaurs on the ark? (making sense of the bible excerpt)

5/27/2018 Were There Dinosaurs on the Ark? (Making Sense of the Bible Excerpt)

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In Praise for Making Sense of the Bible

When I think about how many people have been turned off to the Christian faith because ofhow they mis-read and mis-understand the Bible, I can only say, Thank you Jesus for thisbook! Its going to help a lot of people.Tony Campolo,Founder and President, Evangelical Association for the Promotion ofEducationIn these pages Adam Hamilton exhibits his wise, generous pastoral heart. His exposition of theBible is wondrously accessible. He combines good scholarship with a light touch and areassuring sense of humor. The result is a discussion that will permit readers to think again andfaithfully about the Bible. Hamilton does not let us forget that he bears witness to the gospel, butgives readers lots of room in which to grapple with the challenge of the Bible as he has grappledwith it.Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

Clear, straightforward, lucid, faithful, helpful: this book is a great gift to believers, seekers andanyone who has ever wondered if they would ever be able to understand the Bible. Highlyrecommended.James Martin, SJ, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage.

There are so many books on the Bible. And many of them are terrible -- boring, old, anddry. Adam Hamilton has managed to write a book on the Bible that is honest, relevant, andactually interesting... even captivating. He asks taboo questions and refuses cliche'answers. He invites you to join him on a quest for truth, and even if you don't arrive at the samedestination, you will sure enjoy the ride.Shane Claiborne, author and activist

Anyone who has ever tried to read the Bible knows that it is a confusing book that raises morequestions than it seems to answer. Pastor Adam Hamilton takes the problems of this ancienttext seriously, acting as friend and guide to those who seek to read the Bible intelligently andwith spiritual insight. With humor and common sense, he walks readers through the pitfalls offundamentalism and dry scholarship, opening up both the Bible's profound humanity and itswisdom for living.Diana Butler Bass, author of Christianity After Religion

The Christian Bible has some of the richest and most inspiring passages of all of literature, andwe Christians believe its where we find the Word of God. But our Scriptures also contain someof the most challenging and confusing texts of all the written word. I can think of no one moreadept at bringing out the beauty and authority of Scripture, while also shedding light on theBibles most controversial teachings than Adam Hamilton. Making Sense of the Bible is a mustread for anyone who is looking for a fuller understanding of the Bible.Jim Wallis, President and Founder of Sojourners and author of On Gods Side

Too many committed Christians are given only two unacceptable options regarding the Bible:accept it in the fundamentalist way or discard it entirely. If you hope there's a better way to read,live by, and value the Bible, Adam Hamilton has written the book that will help youand peopleyou know and love. It's understandable. It's honest. It's wise. And it's so, so needed.Brian D. McLaren, author of We Make the Road by Walking



Making Sense of the Bible



ALSOBYADAMHAMILTON

Love to Stay: Sex, Grace and Commitment

When Christians Get It Wrong

The Way: Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus

Forgiveness: Finding Peace through Letting GoFinal Words

The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem

Why: Making Sense of Gods Will

24 Hours That Changed the World

Enough: Discovering Joy through Simplicity and GenerositySeeing Gray in a World of Black and White

Christianitys Family Tree

Christianity and World Religions

Selling Swimsuits in the Arctic

Making Love Last a Lifetime

Unleashing the Word

Leading Beyond the Walls

Confronting the Controversies



Making Sense

of the Bible

RE DISCOVER ING THE POW ER

OF SCRIPTURE TODAY

Adam Hamilton



All Bible quotations from the New Revised Standard Version unlessotherwise noted.

making sense of the bible : Rediscovering the Power of Scripture Today.

Copyright 2014 by Adam Hamilton. All rights reserved. Printed in the

United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in

any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief

quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address

HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.

HarperCollins books may be purchased for educational, business, or salespromotional use. For information please e-mail the Special Markets

Department at [email protected].

HarperCollins website: http://www.harpercollins.com

HarperCollins, , and HarperOneare trademarks of HarperCollins

Publishers.

first edition

Maps by Beehive Mapping

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hamilton, Adam.

Making sense of the Bible : rediscovering the power of scripture today /

Adam Hamilton. first edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

isbn978 006 223496 4

1. BibleIntroductions. I. Title.BS475.3.H3185 2014

220.6'1dc23 2013047578

14 15 16 17 18 RRD(H) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1



Dedication

To my first grandchild, whose birth will occur

about the day this book is published, in the hope that

she will come to love the Bible, and that in it

she will find her defining story.



Contents

Section One: The Nature of Scripture

Introduction:A Disturbing, Wonderful, Perplexing,

and Inspiring Book 3

One:What the Bible Is Not 7

Two:A Biblical Geography and Timeline 11

The Old Testament

Three:The Old Testament in Fifteen Minutes 23

Four:Who Wrote the Old Testament, When,

and Why 31

Five:Which Books Made It Into the Old Testament

and Why 39

Six:Jesus and the Old Testament 49Seven:Prophecy, the Old Testament, and the Early

Church 55



The New Testament

Eight:The New Testament in Fifteen Minutes 65

Nine:Reading Someone Elses Letters 73

Ten:Who Really Wrote Pauls Letters? 85

Eleven:How, When, and Why the Gospels Were

Written 91

Twelve:The Perplexing, Puzzling, and Profound

John 103

Thirteen:Which Books Made It into the New

Testament and Why 109

Questions About the Nature of Scripture

Fourteen:Is the Bible Inspired? 129

Fifteen:Is the Bible the Word of God? 145Sixteen:How Does God Speak to and Through Us? 153

Seventeen:Is the Bible Inerrant and Infallible? 157

Eighteen:A High View of Scripture? 171

Section Two:Making Sense of the BiblesChallenging Passages

Nineteen:Science, the Bible, and the Creation

Stories 185

Twenty:Were Adam and Eve Real People? 195Twenty-One:Were There Dinosaurs on the Ark? 199

Twenty-Two:Gods Violence in the Old Testament 207



Twenty-Three:Suffering, Divine Providence, and

the Bible 219

Twenty-Four:Can We Trust the Gospel Accountsof Jesus? 231

Twenty-Five:Did Jesus Really Say That? 243

Twenty-Six:No One Comes to the Father Except

Through Me? 247

Twenty-Seven:Women Need Not Apply 255

Twenty-Eight:Is It Okay to Get a Tattoo? 261

Twenty-Nine:Homosexuality and the Bible 265

Thirty:Making Sense of the Book of Revelation 281

Thirty-One:Toward an Honest and Reverent View

of Scripture 291

Thirty-Two:Postscript: Reading the Bible forAll Its Worth 301

Bibliography 311

Acknowledgments 313

Notes 315



chapt er 21

Were There Dinosaurs

on the Ark?

Children often ask questions about the Bible, forcing

their parents to think. A woman wrote me recently

with a question put to her by her daughter: Mommy, her daughter

asked, were there dinosaurs on Noahs ark?

Now, this child was reading the Bible, as we would expect.

There was the Creation story, and then, a few chapters later, was

the Flood. Though Genesis doesnt mention dinosaurs, science

does, and we can visit their fossilized remains at any museum of

natural history. Noah takes two of every kind of animal on the ark.

The child reasons that this must have included dinosaurs. But the

five-year-old continues to think about this: How did they fit on

the ark? Wouldnt the dinosaurs have eaten all the other animals,

and even the people, who were on the ark?As someone who accepts the scientific consensus on the age of

the earth and the timeline of various life-forms on our planet, the

answer is simple: Dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago.



200 Making Sense of the Bible

Homo sapiensdid not come on the scene until around 200,000 years

ago. No, there were no dinosaurs on the ark.

But lets consider the story of Noahs ark for a moment more,because other questions have been raised, not by children but by

thoughtful adults, that might lead us to reconsider how the story

should be read. Here are a few of those questions: Is the story his-

torical? Was there a Noah? Did flood waters really cover the whole

earth and destroy every living thing except what was on the ark?

How do we reckon with the morality of God sending universal

destruction such that every terrestrial creature, including every

human being, was destroyed? This story seems harsh and unjust to

many who read it. And what do we make of the connection between

the story of Noah and flood stories that appear in other ancient cul-

tures, including one in the Epic of Gilgamesh (a story found among

many groups in the ancient Near East that is very similar to the

Noah story, though dating possibly to several hundred years before

Moses)?

Before answering these questions, lets take a look at the story

of Noah and the ark found in Genesis 69. Grab a Bible and turn to

Genesis 6:56, where a foundation is laid for the story of the flood.

God looks upon the earth and sees that humanity has become evil,

their hearts filled with evil thoughts. Verse 11 expands upon thisindictment: The earth was corrupt in Gods sight, and the earth

was filled with violence.

There is a moving statement in verse 6 that captures Gods

response to the violence human beings were committing on the

earth: And the LORDwas sorry that he had made humankind on

the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. This verse is a profoundstatement about God and the way our behavior and thoughts affect

God. In the New International Version, verse 6b says Gods heart

was filled with pain.



Were There Dinosaurs on the Ark? 201

Im reminded of the comments of Susan Klebold, whose son

Dylan, along with Eric Harris, took the lives of twelve students and

one teacher at Columbine High School in April 1999. Ten yearsafter the crime, she wrote a powerful essay titled, I Will Never

Know Why, in which she said, In the weeks and months that fol-

lowed the killings, I was nearly insane with sorrow for the suffering

my son had caused. . . . It was impossible to believe that someone I

had raised could cause so much suffering.1

This is the backdrop for the story of Gods sending a deluge to

destroy the earth: human beings doing horribly violent things to

one anotherhorribly evil thingsand God being grieved that

he had created the race at all.

This story leads me to think about what paleoanthropologists

believe happened after the advent of the human spirit, with its

expansion of language, culture, higher-level reasoning, music, and

more complex tools. With these advances came more sophisticated

weapons. It was not long after this time that the Neanderthals, a

close but less advanced cousin of modern humans, began the long

road toward extinction. There are various theories about why the

Neanderthals became extinctfrom climate change to interbreed-

ing with modern humans. But many believe it was the result of vio-

lence committed by the more intelligent and better armed modernhumans.

I dont think the story of Noah and the Flood was written to

teach us ancient history. It was intended to teach us something

about God and about ourselves. But I do think this story is anchored

in history, that its occurrence across multiple ancient cultures testi-

fies to a period of massive flooding, and that it is possible thesefloods came at the end of the last Ice Age.

At the close of the last Ice Age, geologists tell us that major

flooding occurred across the Northern Hemisphere. Ice sheets




melted, creating shallow inland seas. In certain places, ice dams

created massive bodies of water. When the dams eventually broke,

the force of the water destroyed everything in its path. An examplein the United States is the Columbia River Gorge in Washington

and Oregon. There were as many as forty, perhaps more, massive

floods during a two-thousand-year period, which released massive

amounts of water, as much as three hundred feet deep, with a force

that carved out major gorges, created the Scablands of Washington,

and destroyed all life in their path. These floodwaters did not cover

all the earth as the Noah story suggests, but the magnitude of the

flooding was so great and destructive that it was remembered as a

flood that covered the entire earth.

Similar phenomena happened in various parts of the world at

the end of the last Ice Age. It seems likely that these events were

remembered and passed on by humans living during these times

but only written down long afterward, with the advent of written

language around 3200 BCin the ancient Near East and 600 BCin the

Americas. The flooding from the last Ice Age seems mostly to have

occurred during the period from around 15,000 BC to 10,000 BC.

This would explain why people around the world seem to share a

common story about a massive flood. Hence, to answer one of the

questions posed at the beginning of this chapter, the Epic of Gil-gamesh and Noahs ark reflect the same common story, retold in the

light of differing theologies.

Many Christians would ask, Why not simply accept that the

story of Noah was literally true, rather than deferring to the geolo-

gists account of flooding from the last Ice Age? If you research

Noahs ark and geology online, youll find hundreds of websitessponsored by Young Earth Creationists who seek to make the geo-

logical evidence support their view of a literal worldwide flood that

covered all the earth for a short period of time. If you dont read the



Were There Dinosaurs on the Ark? 203

arguments on the other side of the issue, it is easy to find the YEC

explanations compelling. But in my opinion, the evidence in favor

of an old earth and against complete flooding of our earth in recenthistory seems overwhelming.2

So, is the Noah story true or not? Great question. As many ask

itmeaning, did it happen exactly as recorded in the Bible?the

answer is sort of. Did Noah bring two of each of the millions of

species of animals that otherwise would not have survived a global

flood onto an ark? No, I dont believe so. Did water cover the earth

to twenty feet above the highest mountains? Again, I dont think

so. But were there localized floods that humans remembered and

which were survived by some? Could there have been a Noah who

built a boat and brought his family and some animals on the boat as

an ice dam was preparing to break? Maybe. Did God destroy every

animal and every human being on the planet except Noah and those

on his boat 4,300 years ago, or ever? I dont think so. The story

seems to me to be anchored in historical events that happened at the

end of the last Ice Age but is not entirely historically accurate.

Thats one way to answer the question, Is the story of Noahs

ark true? But in a more important sense the answer is Yes, the

story is absolutely true! Like the Creation story, this story teaches

profound truths. The point of its being recorded in the Bible wasntto give us an account of ancient history. Earlier in this book, I men-

tioned Pauls words concerning the point of what was written in

scripture. He notes in 1 Corinthians 10:11, speaking of other Old

Testament stories, These things happened to them to serve as an

example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the

ends of the ages have come. And in Romans 15:4, he writesregarding a passage from the Psalms, For whatever was written in

former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness

and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.




Pauls words substantiate the idea that the point of Noahs story was

not to teach history, or geology, but to teach us about God and

Gods will for our lives.So, what truths does this story intend to teach us? Ill mention a

few, and then encourage you to reread it for yourself and see what

you think. As I noted earlier, I am touched by Genesis 6:6, where

we read that Gods heart was filled with pain as he looked at the

violence human beings committed against one another. The Lord

was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth as a result of

their violence and corruption. How this story still speaks of Gods

grief over the violence we human beings commit against one

another, sometimes in Gods name! When I read Genesis 6, I cant

help but think about the fact that in the last century, when human-

ity reached the apex of technological development (to that point),

over 100 million people died by war and genocide.3

Im reminded of President Eisenhowers famous speech to the

American Society of Newspaper Editors in April 1953, shortly after

the death of Joseph Stalin. It was a gutsy speech calling for reining

in the Cold War:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired

signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not

fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not

spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the ge-

nius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern

heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It

is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.

It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete

highway. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels

of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have

housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the best way of life



Were There Dinosaurs o n the Ark? 205

to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way

of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is

humanity hanging from a cross of iron.4

Perhaps the author of the story of Noah and the Flood was try-

ing to make a similar point about violence and war in his time.

In addition to seeing ourselves and our society in Noahs story,

we might also see in Noah an exemplar of how we are meant to live,

for as the writer of Genesis notes in chapter 6 verse 9, Noah was a

righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with

God. The story goes on to illustrate Noahs righteousness with

these words: Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him

(6:22, 7:5, and 7:9). Many a preacher and Sunday School teacher

has noted that Noah teaches us to listen for Gods commands and

follow them.

The element of this story that children love speaks to Gods

character and Gods concern for the animals. The ark was not only

meant to save humanity; it was meant to save the animals as well.

God cares about saving the animals and not just the people on this

ark of salvation. In a day and time when so many nonreligious

people care so deeply about their animals, the story might be an

interesting way to connect with them, demonstrating Gods loveand concern for their animals.

My point is that this story is filled with truth that is relevant for

us today, but the important truth found in this story has little to do

with the size of Noahs ship, the number of animals it could contain,

or whether the floodwaters literally covered the entire earth. Once

more we find in Genesis an archetypal story that reveals who Godis and who God calls us to be.

Theres one final word Id leave you with related to the stories

in Genesis: The stories in the first eleven chapters of Genesis are




typically seen by mainline scholars as the foundational stories of the

scripture. They are told less to inform us of ancient history than to

teach us about the human condition and about God who created us.As we read them, we are meant to worry less about whether they

really happened in exactly the way they are described, and more

about the truths God intends us to see in them. Am I suggesting

that none of the Old Testament stories are historically accurate? Of

course not. There is much in the Old Testament that describes Isra-

els story and Gods dealings with his people. But the point of the

ancient stories preserved in Genesis is less about offering history

than about teaching us about God, about ourselves, and about

Gods will for our lives. As Paul wrote, For whatever was written

in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfast-

ness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have

hope (Romans 15:4).



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were there dinosaurs on the ark? (making sense of the bible excerpt)

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