An Aberdeen-based theologian has published a new book which offers a startling new interpretation of the early chapters of the Old Testament Book of Genesis, and which also establishes a new and unexpected link between it and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Rev Dr Bruce Gardner, Honorary Research Fellow in Hebrew Bible in the Department of Divinity and Religious Studies of the University of Aberdeen, claims in his new book The Genesis Calendar, that puzzling family trees in Genesis 1-11, including a familiar one of Methuselah, conceal ancient calendars used by the priests of Jerusalem, probably between 500-150BC.
Dr Gardner, a former assistant minister in Kemnay, and parish minister in Turriff and Lewis, began his research for the book while working in Peru in 1995, where he lived for two years and taught theological education.
“It was on a trip to the Andes, at the Lost City of the Incas, that I first saw the connection between ancient religions and astronomy, which was the germ of this book,” he said.
“There too, while studying Inca culture and Ancient Astronomy, I noticed that the Israelites had similar astronomical and calendar ideas in their Bible. Subsequent studies challenged the idea that Genesis should be read at face value. The central discovery is Genesis 1-11 is a kind of calendar essay, pleading for Jewish unity - it is similar to John’s Gospel in spirit.”
Dr Gardner was born in Aberdeen in 1948. He first graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 1971, with an Honours degree in English, following which he graduated from Jordanhill and became a Secondary Teacher in Cumbernauld, Banff, Buckie and Aberdeen. During this time, he was ordained Elder in the Church of Scotland. In 1984, he returned to Aberdeen University to study Divinity, graduating in 1987 with an Honours Bachelor of Divinity degree, specialising mainly in Old Testament
Following his graduation, he entered the Church of Scotland ministry and took on a pastoral charge in the island of Lewis, where he stayed for six years. He then moved on to Lima, Peru, where he worked as a missionary and teacher for two years. In 1996, he returned to Scotland and became parish minister in Turriff in 1998, demitting to pursue his academic career, now steadily growing with university teaching and lecturing in Aberdeen and Canada.
Dr Gardner was recently appointed Honorary Research Fellow in Hebrew Bible at the University of Aberdeen. In Canada, he was Visiting Scholar last autumn, and also a Postgraduate Distance Learning Course Director and Tutor, both at McMaster Divinity College.
“With scholarly articles commissioned from journals in America and Israel, I have enough to keep me going”, he said.
“I am writing a second book on further discoveries, and engaged also in introducing my work to Jewish academics with the co-operation of the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks. My hope is this will increase understanding between Jewish and Christian scholars, world-wide. After all, it is of great interest to us all that Genesis is finally yielding some of its age-old secrets but particularly to Jews, for whom it restores a Temple tradition.”