I think the creation narrative might share some qualities in common with parables, but not all.
Here’s something from a Catholic scholar. His orthodoxy has received mixed reviews elsewhere on this forum (generally speaking, orthodox when it comes to defending the historicity of the Gospels and Epistles in the New Testament, not so orthodox in his critique of JPII’s Theology of the Body).
Anyway, here it is, with a link below to the document for those interested.
"Each of the creation accounts in Genesis
has its own beauty and power. The first tells
us that God is not to be identified with the
world or with part of the world, but rather is
the Originator of all that exists; that God
brings everything into being by the power of
his word; that creation is therefore ordered
and declared good as God makes it. It imagines
humans as created in the image and
likeness of God, male and female equally
participating in that image, and equally
exercising dominion among other creatures.
It declares human sexuality good by making
the propagation of children the first divine
commandment. This vision of creation is
majestic, the unfolding of a cosmic drama,
with God orchestrating the entire process
through his command, his internal counsel
(“let us make man”) and his approving
comment.
The creation account in Genesis 2 has its
own distinctive vision, equally imaginative
and powerful. Here, God is much more
intimately involved with creation, forming
a human from the dust of the earth, placing
him in a garden to tend and preserve, parading
the animals before Adam to receive a
name and possibly find a mate for the man,
expressing empathy (“it is not good for man
to be alone”), shaping a partner for the male
from his rib. In this version, the narrator
focuses on the relationship between man
and woman (they cleave to each other) more
than their propagation of children; and
imposing limits to what they can eat that
introduces the possibility in the creature of
obedience or disobedience.
Taken together, both accounts of creation
have a wisdom that speaks inexhaustibly to
the human condition, not only as it was “in
the beginning” but above all as it continues
to be in every circumstance throughout time.
It is not at all strange that these accounts are
echoed in the paeans to personified wisdom
in Proverbs 8 and Sirach 24, for they have preoccupied
sages in the Jewish and Christian traditions for centuries,
constantly enriching those who invest their minds, and
especially their imaginations, in the study of these texts.
When these wonderful passages are isolated from the
other voices within Scripture and read in an inappropriately
literalistic fashion, the passages are deprived of their
power precisely to the degree that they are robbed of
their magic. The perils of reading the beginning of Genesis
as though it were a literal, historical description, are
illustrated by Saint Augustine, who tried three times to
interpret Genesis according to the letter, and never got
past the opening passages. Augustine kept getting stuck.
From our advantage, we can see that he lacked an understanding
of narrative truth that would enable him to
engage the metaphoric qualities of the accounts in their
own terms."
Excerpt from:
“Creation”, an essay by Luke Timothy Johnson, published March 2007 in Volume 59, Number 1, of
Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith available at:
asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2007/PSCF3-07Johnson.pdf
