Interpretations of Genesis
The Book of Genesis has been interpreted in many ways, including literally, religiously, and allegorically. Religious interpretations The Book of Genesis is regarded as a religious text by several faiths, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Many adherents of those faiths interpret Genesis literally, while others interpret it as a metaphor or symbolism. Joseph Ratzinger, who would later become Pope Benedict XVI, articulates a Roman Catholic perspective, rejecting a literalism that would see Genesis interpreted as speaking about reality like “physics and biology.” Rejecting an approach that would, in his mind, by emphasising only the general messages of the text “imply that the individual passages of the Bible sink into meaninglessness,” he presents a symbolic hermeneutic for the text."They represent truth in the way that symbols do — just as, for example, a Gothic window gives us a deep insight into reality, thanks to the effects of light that it produces and to the figures that it portrays."Ratzinger brings specific attention to the numerology of the narrative, finding echoes for the Ten Commandments and the Sabbath, drawing out an under girding message of the inherent nature of the creation to worship, as per the Ten Commandments, and to do so rhythmically,