Dwelling on the details of a grand parable risks missing the point.
But there isn't anything in the text to suggest that Gen. 1 is a parable. It's clearly narrative ... and I would claim its narrative history. I agree if you dwell on the details of a parable you could miss the point; but assigning a literary genre arbitrarily will guarantee you miss it.
>>But there isn’t anything in the text to suggest that Gen. 1 is a parable. It’s clearly narrative ... and I would claim its narrative history. I agree if you dwell on the details of a parable you could miss the point; but assigning a literary genre arbitrarily will guarantee you miss it.<<
What suggests to me that the Genesis story is a kind of a parable is that the people of the day couldn’t possibly understand the full story. Heck, I studied modern physics for 8 years and I only understand a tiny fraction and I have 6,000 years of scholars to lean on.
God telling man about creation is not completely different from a parent telling a child where babies come from. You don’t to a four year old who asks but you don’t tell him everything and even if you did he wouldn’t understand.
Sadly, unlike the child who will become a parent, we don’t grow up to be like God and we never really can know his whole mind on a subject...