John Walton's book, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (InterVarsity, 2009), is bound to create a stir. Why?

John Walton as an Old Testament scholar addresses a broad audience about the meaning of Genesis 1. Walton wants to be sensitive to what Genesis 1 said to ancient Israelites, who do not bring to Genesis the same questions as do 21st-century people influenced by science. He claims that Genesis 1 and other ancient accounts of creation focus on function and not on material.

For example, on the third day, God gathered the waters into one place, creating two functional spaces, the dry land and the sea. No new material was needed. On the fourth day God made the sun and moon and stars with a function: "to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness" (Genesis 1:17-18). Genesis says nothing about the material composition of sun, moon, and stars, nor would such information (which is technical information in modern science) be relevant.

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