Traditional Interperation of Genesis

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Hello which Early Church Fathers interpereted the Genesis account of Creation completely literally and which ones interpereted Allegorically? And also which Catholic Bible Commentators believed the flood to be global and which to be local (but wiping out all humanity) and when did they live? Also did any Early Church Fathers believe that the flood covered only the parts of the Earth inhabited by humans. Take your time to respond.

Thank You, God Bless
 
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rabbitdonkey said:
Hello which Early Church Fathers interpereted the Genesis account of Creation completely literally and which ones interpereted Allegorically?
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You might want to do some research into the “Alexandrian” and “Antiochian” schools of Christian thought. Generally, the Alexandrian school tended toward allegorical exegesis. (I don’t mean to imply, however, that the Antiochians were strict literalists in a ‘fundamentalist’ kind of way.)
 
rabbitdonkey said:
Hello which Early Church Fathers interpereted the Genesis account of Creation completely literally and which ones interpereted Allegorically? And also which Catholic Bible Commentators believed the flood to be global and which to be local (but wiping out all humanity) and when did they live? Also did any Early Church Fathers believe that the flood covered only the parts of the Earth inhabited by humans. Take your time to respond.

Thank You, God Bless
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St. Augustine, in ‘Confessions’, speaks at the end, of Genesis, with the use of allegory.
 
rabbitdonkey said:
Hello which Early Church Fathers interpereted the Genesis account of Creation completely literally and which ones interpereted Allegorically? And also which Catholic Bible Commentators believed the flood to be global and which to be local (but wiping out all humanity) and when did they live? Also did any Early Church Fathers believe that the flood covered only the parts of the Earth inhabited by humans. Take your time to respond.

Thank You, God Bless
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🍿
 
rabbitdonkey said:
Hello which Early Church Fathers interpereted the Genesis account of Creation completely literally and which ones interpereted Allegorically? And also which Catholic Bible Commentators believed the flood to be global and which to be local (but wiping out all humanity) and when did they live? Also did any Early Church Fathers believe that the flood covered only the parts of the Earth inhabited by humans. Take your time to respond.

Thank You, God Bless
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seriously?
 
I’m interested in this, its not a homework assigment 🙂

God Bless
 
I’m pretty sure all the Early Church Fathers would. Because their understanding of the world was limited to their time in history - in scope and complexity. The world was a small place to them - stretching from Britain to China but not extending much more southward than the Sahara. And their scientific understanding was limited to pretty much Aristotle and derivatives like Galen and Ptolemy.

From what I know about the Church Fathers, thinking reason and faith need not be at odds, I can’t imagine Augustine, if he were in our time, would dispute what astronomers, physicists, geologists, biologists, geographers, paleontologists, etc. all have concluded regarding the age of the universe. And I think he would be able to explain much more eloquently than I could how what we have discovered about our universe through science doesn’t conflict with his faith or scripture.
 
rabbitdonkey said:
Hello which Early Church Fathers interpereted the Genesis account of Creation completely literally and which ones interpereted Allegorically? And also which Catholic Bible Commentators believed the flood to be global and which to be local (but wiping out all humanity) and when did they live? Also did any Early Church Fathers believe that the flood covered only the parts of the Earth inhabited by humans. Take your time to respond.

Thank You, God Bless
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catholic.com/tract/creation-and-genesis
 
I’ve already looked at catholic.com/tract/creation-and-genesis, And the Old Catholic Encyclopedia articles on the Hexamaeron and the Deluge (it considers the flood to have only covered parts of the earth inhabited by man). I’ve also read the Haydock Bible commentary and Calmet’s dictionary on the Bible (they both believe the flood to be global) Thank you

God Bless
 
The “literal” interpretation of Scripture, at least as that term is used by fundamentalists, is a very recent development. The early Church had varying interpretations of Genesis, but none required the kind of strict historical literalism that is popular in some American protestant denominations.
 
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