Chapter 2 A Brief Overview of the Exegesis of Genesis 1-11: Luther to Lyell
David Hall summarizes his chapter: “What follows is a summary of the most noteworthy theologians from 1500 to roughly 1830 (about the time of Charles Lyell, the figurehead leader of the geological theory of deep time).[1]
Hall notes importantly: “When one considers the totality of primary sources, rather than the unsubstantiated claims of modern proponents of old-earth creationism, we will see that Martin Luther, John Calvin, the Westminster Divines, John Wesley, and the like are no friends of deep time or gradual creation.”[2]
The Protestant Reformers
I am only going to quote John Calvin as representative of the Protestant Reformers: “We are drawn away from all fictions to the only God who distributed his work into six days that we might not find it irksome to occupy our whole life in contemplating it.”[3] On the age of the earth, Calvin contended that the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 were strict chronologies (with no gaps).[4] Thomas Constable agrees with Calvin on the genealogy in Genesis: The careful recording of the age of each man when he fathered the next man in the list strongly suggests that this list is complete. Furthermore, the genealogies in 1 Chronicles 1:1-4 and Luke 3:36-38 are identical to the one in Genesis 5. There are probably no missing generations. As well as Keil and Delitzsch, 1:120-27.[5]
From Calvin to Ussher
Next, Hall quotes an impressive succession of Genevan scholars, including Theodore Beza (1519-1605), Wolfgang Musculus (1497-1563), Peter Martyr (1499-1562), and Francois Homan. I am going to cite Peter Martyr as typical of this period: “The evening and the morning were made the first days of the gathering together forth of light before the bringing forth of the sunne ....When we speak of the creation of things, we bring not forth one thing out of another after Aristotle’s manner, but we affirm all natures, as well bodies with bodies [angels, demons], to be created of another by the word of God.”[6]
Continental Reformed Theologians, 1590-1690
Zacharius Ursinus (1534-1583) speaks for many Reformers of this era. Ursinus was a student of Philip Melanchthon and wrote a commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism. Ursinus became a professor at Heidelberg in 1561. The catechism was published anonymously in 1563, but many contend he was the main contributor to writing the famous catechism.[7] In his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, he wrote, “According to the common reckoning, it is now counting from this 1616 of Christ, 5534 years since the creation of the world.”[8]
British Puritan Exegetes
“Cambridge Fellow, William Perkins (1558-1602), was a puritan, polemicist, and preacher par excellence. His works at the height of British Puritanism became as popular as Calvin’s.”[9] On the time and days of creation, Perkins wrote: “The sixth shall be touching the tme of the beginning of the world, which is between five thousand and sixe thousand years a goe.... God could have made the world, and all things in it in one moment: but hee began and finished the whole worke in sixe distinct dates.... for the light was made the first day: but the Sune, the Moone, and the Stars were not created before the fourth day.”[10]
Reformed Theologians a Century after Westminster, 1640-1740
Hall cited one of the darlings of Reformed theologians: “Writing in 1679, Francis Turretin noted, but then rejected, the Augustinian view and sided with Ussher: ‘Nor does the sacred history written by Moses cover any more than six thousand years .... Greek history scarcely contains the history of two thousand years.’ Tuerritn went so far as to commend Ussher and others for specifying that creation happened in autumn, not spring.”[11]
Wesley and Early 19th Century Commentaries
[John] Wesley never wrote extensively on creation or the Flood, but in this work, he stated his belief that the various rock strata were “doubtless formed by the general Deluge” of Noah’s day.[12] On the age of the earth, Wesley declared: “The Scripture being the only Book in the world that gives us any account of the whole series of God’s Dispensations toward man from the Creation for four thousand years.”[13]
Joining the Church Fathers, the Reformers also advocated six-twenty-four days of creation, approximately six thousand years ago. Thus, the Great Tradition is a young earth.
[1] Terry Mortenson, Coming to Grips with Genesis (p. 54).
[2] Ibid., 55.
[3] Ibid., 56.
[4] Calvin, Genesis, p.76
[5] Thomas Constable, Netbible.org
[6] Terry Mortenson, Coming to Grips with Genesis, 62.
[7] Zacharius Ursinus: The Happy Professor
[8] Zacharius Ursinus, Commentary to the Heidelberg Confession, (Columbus: Scott and Bascom Printers, 1852).
[9] Terry Mortenson, Coming to Grips with Genesis (p. 68).
[10] William Perkins, An Exposition of the Creede, 1:143.
[11] Terry Mortenson, Coming to Grips with Genesis 71.
[12] Ibid.,74.
[13] Wesley, Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation, II:227.