Whenever you read a quote like this:

The new interpretation is a complete shake up of the story of the Creation as we know it. (source)

you can be sure that some intellectual has turned the Bible into a mirror, reflecting her own personal beliefs.

Common sense can tell us that this “scholar” is full of hot air. Is it really possible that no Hebrew scholar over the past 2,000 years until this lady figured out what one of the most popular verses in the Old Testament really means? It’s not like no one has been trying to undermine Judaism or Christianity over that time.

It also shows a serious misunderstanding of the relationship of the Scriptures to the people of God. The Jews (and Christians) don’t believe that God is the Creator because of this one verse; they believe God is the Creator because that has been what has been handed on to them from previous generations since before the words of Genesis were even written down. If the original author of Genesis simply wrote that God “separated” the heavens from the (pre-existing) earth, the Jews of that time would have rejected that as an inspired text (as would later Christians).

And as Catholics, we can be confident that a true understanding of the Bible will be consistent with our Tradition, because we know that the same Spirit which inspired the biblical writers also guides the Church to all truth.

Unfortunately, this is the motto of too many biblical scholars today: “Let us make Scripture in our own image, in our likeness.”