Haydn, call your office. That creation oratorio needs some updating. It is, according to Prof. Ellen van Wolde, “untenable now.”
You see, the good professor has done a fresh textual analysis of the Hebrew text of Genesis and concludes that it merely credits God with “separating” the Heavens and the Earth. First Things has the story.
A spokesman for the Radboud University said: “The new interpretation is a complete shake up of the story of the Creation as we know it.” Prof. Van Wolde added: “The traditional view of God the Creator is untenable now.”
So Jewish history and scholarship is based on a misunderstanding of a single verb? Christianity and Islam foolishly forgot to do some fact-checking at the outset before sweeping across the world?
Where was Professor van Wolde when we needed her, and why did God (still a very clever fellow to have separated the Heavens and the Earth) wait so long to send a new a prophet to issue this retraction? I nominate van Wolde to chair the inquiry into this massive fraud. What did God know, and when did He know it?
First Things, however, has doubts about the professor’s textual analysis of English:
For instance, she seems to think the word “untenable” means “can’t be defended since I settled the issue” and that “fresh textual analysis” is synonymous with “stuff I just made up.”
Exactly. But take comfort. The traditional view of academic arrogance remains as tenable as ever.
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