Science, Scripture, and the Creation Narrative In these two
brief video Conversations, John Walton emphasizes the importance
of adopting the mindset of the ancient world in order to read
Genesis more faithfully. In the first clip, Walton discusses the
problem of trying to integrate ancient scripture with our modern
worldview. He notes that while people come to scripture thinking
that they need to integrate it with the way we view the world
now, it is not appropriate to read science out of the Bible or
into the Bible. This makes the text say things that it never
meant to an ancient audience. In the second clip, Walton
continues on the topic and points out that while modern people
are inclined to think of creation in terms of material
origins—as that is the way we view the rest of the world—ancient
people did not think this way. Instead of being concerned about
the precise methodology God used for the creation of matter,
ancients were more interested in God’s role as the figure in
charge of all matter. In order