Studies in Genesis One

by Edward J. Young

This is a collection of three articles which originally appeared in Westminster Theological Journal and have been bound together as an individual volume. This study is "based upon the assumption that [Genesis 1] is a revelation from God, and that it tells us about the origin of all things."

The three articles are: The Relation of the First Verse of Genesis One to Verses Two and Three; The Interpretation of Genesis 1:2; The Days of Genesis.

For anyone who is interested in the Creation debate-- whether between Christians and Athiests or among Christians-- this is a volume you want to check out.

Young's writings are not for the faint of heart: these articles were originally published in a very scholarly journal. In addition to dry, scholarly writing and pages made up more by footnotes than text, you'll encounter Hebrew words (written with Hebrew characters), Greek words (in Greek characters), Latin, Arabic, German, scholarly abbreviations, and summaries of more views than you even knew existed!

In this book, I found some things which I disagreed with. On other pages, I found better ways of explaning what I already believed. In reading Studies in Genesis One, I learned a lot-- probably more than I needed to know, but perhaps not more than I wanted to know. If you're up for the task of some heavy reading, are teaching a class on Genesis, or just are interested in the debate, I recommend picking up this book. Otherwise, you might look for the Cliff notes.

The Editors do not advocate everything taught by the authors of the books we review. Like us, these authors are fallible humans and those who choose to read these books should measure them by the bible, the one true standard.