Genesis Chapters 1-11 Are Literal History

Over the last few days I have seen increasing numbers of Christians who want to say that the first eleven chapters of Genesis are just allegory and not actual history. However, this viewpoint is not valid and creates huge problems for the rest of Scripture. In fact, the rest of Scripture rests on the opening of Genesis.

There are several reasons that we should look at these chapters as a historical record. First, they are written as a historical record. They are not written as allegory, there is no reason to think that they are written in that fashion either.

Genesis Chapter 1 gives us a day by day, and, yes, that is literal 24-hour days, breakdown of how God created the world that we live in and everything that is in the world, including mankind. Chapter 2 goes more specifically into the creation of man, Adam and Eve, and why they are important to the overall story of humanity. Chapter 3 explains the fall of man.

In these three chapters we setup the rest of Scripture. We see God’s perfect creation. Man sins against God and taints that perfect creation. Now, there is a need for salvation and God has promised a way for that salvation. Without these three chapters, without these events, the rest of Scripture is irrelevant.

Another reason we should look to these chapters as historical records is because they give historical records in the form of genealogies. We see these records in chapters 4, 5, 9, 10, and 11. The culture of ancient Israel was very meticulous about keeping genealogical records. They would not have made up names to put them in an allegorical form of records to make a point.

The final reason to understand the opening of Genesis as a historical account is because that is how the rest of Scripture understands it. Throughout the Old Testament, (A couple of examples are Psalm 33:6 and Exodus 31:17) and the New Testament, (see 1 Cor. 15:45-47) the authors of Scripture treated the opening of Genesis as a historical account and not an allegorical representation of a concept.

Yes, there are many places in Scripture where it is abundantly clear that the authors are speaking in metaphorical or allegorical terms. However, that should not be our default when interpreting a passage. We should interpret the Bible literally unless the text compels us to look at it another way.