This book, co-written with J. Harvey Walton, offers a new way to read Genesis. Instead of focusing on how God made the world, Walton explains that Genesis is about the purpose and order God gave creation. He suggests Adam and Eve may be symbolic, not just historical figures. The book is clear, easy to read, and encourages readers to think about how faith and science can fit together.

New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis: Advances in the Origins Debate
By John H. Walton, Published by ‎ IVP Academic
Read 5/4/2025 – 5/24/2025

Review Title: An Excellent Addition to Walton’s Lost World Series to Understand Genesis

The author, Dr. John H. Walton, taught Old Testament at Wheaton College for many years and has studied and written extensively on Genesis, the Ancient Near East, and biblical interpretation from the perspective of the biblical authors. His son, Dr. J. Harvey Walton, also has studied this subject matter and provides some contributions.

I had thought this book would be a revised edition of The Lost World of Genesis One, but it’s not. Instead, each chapter looks at major themes in Walton’s Lost World series and Genesis commentary and provides additional insight as well as some ways his views have grown and changed. He also answers common questions that he has been asked over the past 20 years while speaking and teaching on these ideas. This book is not a replacement for the other Lost World books, and readers will get the most out of the book if they are familiar with Walton's works.

Each chapter begins with a summary of the author’s previous work on the topic covered in the chapter. Next, when he now has different conclusions, he explains how and why his thinking has evolved. Each chapter also has an extensive section where he answers questions. Some of these questions would be useful in a book club or small group discussion of the book.

“In the ancient world, people did not primarily think of God’s acts of creation of the cosmos in terms of making objects; they thought of it as bringing order. Order is understood as a stable and secure situation where everything is working the way it is supposed to work (p29).”

“God’s communication accommodated Israel’s language and culture, not ours (p32).”

“God’s rest is therefore not in a bed but on his throne (pp127-128).”

“As long as God is seen as the Creator (even if evolution proposes how his work of creation proceeds), then those who feel compelled by the scientific evidence supporting biological evolution can also adopt the affirmation of Scripture. Such a decision would not require the choice between science and Scripture that many propose (p153).”

“Genesis 3 is not about the origin of the human condition but about the nature of the human condition (p184).”

“‘God made us more than what he made us from’ (p219).”

“‘Evolutionary creation (EC) is the belief that God is the creator, and science gives an accurate (though not complete) description of how God’s creation has changed over time. Evolutionary creationists accept the scientific consensus when it comes to ideas like the Big Bang model of cosmology, the tectonic model of geology, and the evolutionary model of biology’ (p222).”

“That I find the Bible and evolutionary theory to be compatible is premised on my interpretation of the biblical text, not on my assessment of the scientific credibility of evolutionary theory (p230).”

This book is an excellent follow-up to Walton’s previous books and Genesis commentary. He adds additional insights beyond what is in the existing works. I appreciate that he has updated (and elucidated) some of his views based on his additional research and study. Because each chapter begins with a summary of previous writings, readers unfamiliar with Walton are able to catch up to the current conversation. However, I think the target audience of this book is those who are already familiar with at least some of Walton’s views. The Q&A parts of each chapter are also extremely valuable as he answers frequently asked questions and addresses the concerns raised by critics.

I thought the best part of the book was his discussion on science. He was very clear that his understanding of the biblical text was based on the text itself and not an attempt to accommodate modern science. He pointed out that scientific ideas need to be evaluated by experts in the scientific community, that there were valid reasons for the scientific consensus on topics like evolution, and any criticisms or objections must be from those who understand the science, not lay people or those who have theological objections. He also stated bluntly that he was not advocating for any particular scientific position. I really wish that more pastors would take this approach rather than the far more typical popular apologetics, which are so often poor or inaccurate “scientific” arguments. Walton’s depth of study and expertise on this subject matter elevate this book’s importance to the evangelical community to bring greater understanding and respect for the early chapters in Genesis. I highly recommend it!

See full review here:
https://medium.com/@pkajjohnson/new-explorations-in-the-lost-world-of-genesis-advances-in-the-origins-debate-0ba10262302c

Biblical scholarship in a digestible format. Not overly scholarly but still helpful to disentangle the first three books of Genesis.

As a person with interest in scripture, its interpretaion, and application, I find this to be a refreshing book that opens up news ways to look at scripture. Simply to consider that the bible was written for us but not to usprovides a wider scope of questioning and unerstanding. I appreciate the author considers other perspectives in explaining how he has come to his present model of theology.

New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis by John Walton

New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis: Advances in the Origins Debate (The Lost World Series) was released on April 15, 2025. Updating and expanding upon his previous work, this volume is the eighth in Walton's bestselling Lost World Series. Walton's books have shaped readers' understanding of the ancient Near Eastern world and its implications for modern scientific origins debates.

Evaluation - New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis

I first heard about John Walton's approach to Genesis from a lecture he gave at a faith and science conference at Wheaton College when I was an undergraduate student (around 2005). It was significant for me because it was the first time that I heard an intellectually rigorous theological perspective that actually aligned with what science claimed. Before this, my perception was that the science department and the Bible department disagreed about these topics related to origins. For this reason, I was excited to see what Walton has updated, clarified, and even where he changed his mind.

There are several great things about this book. First, the structure of the book makes it easy to follow. You can read this volume without having read all the previous Lost World books. It probably does require some familiarity with the questions and debate around origins to get the most out of it but not required. The FAQs make it easy to skip around and read about specific questions you may be more interested in.

Second, I really appreciate it when an author is forthcoming with where they have changed their mind. Walton also sticks to the content of the debates and avoids any negative ad hominem arguments. Walton's humility and transparency give him added credibility in my book.

Third, it is cool to see the collaboration with his son J. Harvey Walton. There are several excurses written by his son that add helpful insights and expanded concepts. These are also many of the areas where Walton has changed his mind or expanded his previous material the most.

Book Summary - New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis

In New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis, Walton provides comprehensive and timely updates on the latest developments and research. The updates focus on Genesis 1-3 and material from the previous books The Lost World of Genesis One and The Lost World of Adam and Eve.

There are eight main topics:

Methodology: How should we approach the text?
Gen. 1 - What kind of creation account is this? (functional ontology)
Gen. 1 - The seventh day and its significance (temple and rest)
Gen. 2 - The garden and the trees (sacred space and priestly roles)
Gen. 2 - Adam and Eve (archetypes, dust, and fall)
Gen. 3 - The serpent and the fall
Gen. 3 - The pronouncement and aftermath
Gen. 3 - Science and the Bible

Each topic has three parts. First, a summary of the previous material. Second, Walton provides new insights, clarifications, and illustrations to expand on the previous material. Last is a section of frequently asked questions and common critiques.

My hope for this book is that it will (1) help those who have adopted the Lost World perspective to understand it more fully, (2) help those who have been confused and uncertain to gain more clarity, and (3) help those who have been resistant and critical to perhaps correct what they believe about me or about the position so that the conversation can move forward in more healthy ways, even if they continue to disagree.
New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis by John Walton

1) Methodology:

Walton believes in both God's authority and human agency in the creation of the Bible. He claims that "the Bible is written for us but not to us". It is written to a particular group of people in a particular cultural context. We should seek to understand what the author intended to communicate and what the original audience would have understood.

Inerrancy means we must affirm what the Bible affirms as true. It does not mean that we believe everything written in the Bible is true. For example, the statements Satan makes to tempt Jesus in the desert are lies. This isn't controversial because it is clear in the context of the temptation that Satan is lying and the author is not trying to communicate those lies as truth. The question for interpretation then becomes what does the Bible affirm and what is just a reference.

The ancient cosmic and physiological perspectives in the Bible should be considered as references and not affirmations. Claiming that the sky is a solid dome is not an affirmation. It is a reference to the default way people thought about the sky in the ancient near east. We should apply this same methodology to the creation and fall accounts in Genesis 1-3.

2) Functional Ontology:

Walton claims that Genesis 1 is not about the material or physical creation of objects. It is about God bringing order and a function to objects. This is how the ancient near east thought about creation. Walton now focuses more on order and function. The initial state was non-order. God brought order to the non-order. Human brought disorder. This spectrum of order provides a better way of understanding what the original authors were communicating.

This is not to say that God did not also create the underlying mater, but that is not what Genesis is talking about. Walton uses analogies like a house vs a home or software vs hardware to help us think about the order/function of an object vs the material of an object.

The seven days are then to be understood as a literarily prioritized order and not a chronological order. The Bible does not answer questions about the mechanisms, like evolution.

3) Temple and Rest:

Walton claims that day seven in the creation story is the climax. When God rested, we should understand that he came to occupy the space like a deity would occupy a temple after it was constructed. Previously, Walton referred to this as a cosmic temple. The problem with this view is that role of a temple was to distinguish between inside and outside, separating the sacred space from the non-sacred space. There is no outside the cosmos, so Walton now refers to this as "cosmos as a sacred space". The role of humans then is to expand the sacred space by expanding God's order.

4) Sacred Space and Priestly Roles:

Walton identified Adam and Eve as having priestly roles in his previous works. Eden was a sacred space and Adam and Eve served as archetypes of priests. This assumes that Eden is human realm where God visits (like other sacred spaces). Walton changes his view to consider Eden as the divine realm where humans find they do not belong. Adam and Eve are then viewed as wardens and Eden is more a palace/royal garden than a temple garden.

Walton also claims that we should not push for symmetry between the garden of Eden in Genesis and the imagery used in Revelation for the culminating future Kingdom of God. We should not read more into Genesis than what is there to try to make it match the picture in Revelation.

5) Adam and Eve:

Adam and Eve should primarily be thought of as archetypes. This is not to say they weren't real people that existed in a real past, but that isn't what the text is trying to describe. This does not mean that Genesis is an allegory where things have symbolic meaning.

There is evidence that there were other humans other than Adam and Eve. First is Cain found a wife, presumably from other people that existed nearby. Second is Cain's fear that there were other people out there that would kill him when he is banished. Third is that Cain built a city, which presumes other people would live there.

Walton claims that the creation of Adam from dust is a claim about identity, not his origin or material nature. Dust is a reference to mortality. Humans are created mortal from the beginning. It was access to the tree of life that allowed them to avoid death in Eden. Without access to the tree of life, their mortal nature led to physical death. This means that Adam and Eve did not need to be made out of nothing (no predecessors).

What made Adam and Eve unique is being made in the image of God. This is a reference to their role to rule, not their mental faculties, consciousness, or ability to reason.

Adam and Eve are not archetypes of male and female. They both represent all humanity. Adam is an archetype for work and Eve is an archetype for community. Working and community are both aspects of life for both male and female.

6) The Serpent:

The serpent should be understood as a chaos creature. It is not Satan and should not be thought of as evil as usually understood. This avoids questions about how evil or Satan could have existed before the fall or why was Satan was allowed in the Garden of Eden. When the serpent is thought of as a chaos creature, it represents non-order, which isn't evil like disorder. It is not desirable for humans, but it is not evil. The serpent is a catalyst for humans making a choice between God and themselves.

Genesis 3 should not be thought about as a story for how sin came into the world or about how two people's choices affect us all. It is about humanities search for order. Genesis 1-11 covers the many inadequate ways that humans find in that search.

7) The Curse:

Walton claims that calling the pronouncement in Gen. 3:14-19 should not be thought of as a curse or punishment. First, the pronouncement applies to the serpent and the ground, not the humans. Second, this passage should be read as descriptive and not prescriptive.

Walton pushes back against common interpretations such as the "serpent crusher" in Gen. 3:15 being a messianic claim about Jesus and the "rule" and "desire" in Gen. 3:16 being a claim about gender relationships. This was not the intent of the original author.

8) Science and the Bible:

Our contemporary scientific questions were not a part of what the author of Genesis was intending to answer nor what the ancient near eastern audience would have asked. We must not read into the text our own assumptions from our current cultural perspective.

For the author, teleology (destiny) is more important than ontology (what we came from). The Bible is concerned with agency (who and why questions) not about what and how questions. This removes the perceived conflict between science and faith.

For example, if science claims that evolution best explains the how and what of human origins, Christians can freely accept this thesis and still rely on the Bible for traditional answers to the who and why questions.

My Top Takeaways - New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis

Inerrancy:
Affirmations and References

From a high level, why does all of this matter? What is at stake if we believe all the claims that Walton makes in this book? One common worry is related to inerrancy. Biblical inerrancy is the belief that the Bible is without errors. If we accept Walton's claims, are we accepting that the Bible was wrong about these things? Then could it also be wrong about Jesus, the resurrection, etc.?

Inerrancy is an easy concept for me to support at a general level, but it is a very nuanced concept to apply to specific texts. I really like the distinction Walton makes between affirmations and references. Everything is a reference at one level. The words reference something in the reality of the author and audience. Some of the references are also affirmations. These affirmations are intended to communicate a truth claim. I like the definition of inerrancy that states we must affirm as true what the Bible affirms as true.

Walton's methodology provides some helpful guidelines to help think about what in the Bible is a refence and what is an affirmation. First, he points out the distinction between an affirmation at the discourse level compared to an affirmation at the detail level. There is always an affirmation at the discourse level, but there may not be affirmations at the detail level of a particular text.

Good questions to ask when approaching a text is "Why is this here?" and "What did this text change about the audience's thinking?". If the text departs from the default understanding of the culture, it is more likely to be an affirmation. If the text is the same as the default understanding of the culture, it is more likely to be a reference.

Inerrancy and the Historical Adam:
One area where this approach is helpful is the historical Adam. What do we lose if Adam was not a real historical person? Some people feel like there is a lot riding on it. I think the main reason is related to inerrancy. First, can we trust the rest of the Bible? Second, for historical Adam in particular, we must address how Paul refers to Adam in Romans 5. Do we need to assume that what Paul wrote was his based on his own understanding of Genesis and does that demand that we also believe what Paul believed about Genesis?

Walton provides a helpful distinction between the historical Adam, the literary Adam, and the theological Adam. These do not need to all be the same. If Genesis is using Adam as a literary archetype, then it isn't making a claim about the historical Adam. Paul could have affirmed both a historical Adam as well as the literary Adam in Genesis and still used a theological Adam to communicate about a specific theological point relevant to his audience. We don't need to merge all of this into one, monolithic understanding.

My Critiques - New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis
Methodology:

Walton addresses the common critique about his approach only being possible recently due to the archeological discoveries of many ancient near eastern tablets and scrolls. Why would God allow/create a situation where no one could accurately interpret Scripture for thousands of years between then and now?

Walton does a good job addressing the problems behind this type of question. He points out that various cultures throughout history asked different questions of the text and therefore had different methodologies for interpretation. They would never have considered the approach of trying to understand the original intent of the author because the question was not answerable to them.

Walton applies his methodology consistently and comes to many different conclusions than much of traditional evangelicalism. Many of the conclusions make a lot of sense, often more sense than the traditional view (at least to me in the cultural context). My question is whether his methodology is the best way to interpret Scripture and the best way to get at the truth.

First, is the intent of the author always the same as the intent of God? Could God intend to communicate to various audiences through various methodologies using the same text across different times and cultures?

Second, what can we learn from previous and alternative methodologies? Are we going to have too narrow of a view if we only look at interpretations through Walton's methodology?

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis is a book all Christians, historians and even scientists should pick up to read. It holds a wealth of insights to make anyone a better reader of the bible. It provides insight and clarity to this an important resource for anyone.

Walton's gift has always been to situate Genesis in its original ancient near eastern context and remind current day readers of what this meant for that original mindset. This can help to refocus erroneous thinking in some modern day interpretations. You might not agree with everything Walton says or concludes but you will find your thinking stretched and your attention refocused.

I'm biased because Walton was a professor of mine, but the care he takes to map out a fresh (but thoroughly explored) map towards understanding Genesis and our ancient world is one-of-a-kind. His understanding of Scripture is high, based in thoughtfulness and respect for the reader. If you want to go deeper in your relationship to the Bible and the God of the Hebrews, I can't recommend this enough.

A really thought-provoking set of reflections on how to read Genesis with precision in regards to its cultural setting and the worldview of its author and audience while still holding it as Scripture.

(I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

Fifteen years ago, John H. Walton published a small but significant work: The Lost World of Genesis One which intended to shake up the stultified debate about the contentious chapter by looking at the cultural context of the Ancient Near East. His core claim in that book is that the chapter reads quite differently when you realize that its audience wasn't interested so much in material origins as much as functional origins. That is, the questions they were asking were about why the world exists, what it is for, and what we are for. Those are significantly different questions than what modern people tend to ask, such as how old the earth is, whether human beings evolved from simpler organisms or not, etc. The chapter is not about whether the earth is 6000 or 4.5 billion years old; it is, in Walton's view, about what the world is for. Based on the text itself, Walton's argument back then was that Genesis 1 paints creation as a sort of "cosmic temple" where God could meet with his people.

The success of that book kicked off a flurry of other "Lost World" books, all aimed at the same general premise of recovering the forgotten context of various aspects of the Old Testament. Now, fifteen years later, Walton (along with his son, J. Harvey Walton) has written New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis: Advances in the Origins Debate. It's a summary of what he's previously written, an explanation of how he's adjusted his argument over time, and a response to the various critiques he's received.

Adjustments
One fairly notable adjustment Walton has made is to move away from "cosmic temple" language toward "sacred space" language. this largely cashes out to the same thing in the main, but it does does relieve him of the pressure to paint Adam and Eve as "priests" that "temple" would necessitate. One of the major questions Walton's work had raised was, "Why are Adam and Eve singled out as individual characters in the text if not to answer the question of human material origins?" His previous answer to that question was their function as priests within the cosmic temple, but this obviously no longer works. So now his position is the relatively less controversial position that they are simply named archetypes. It is not their biology that is significant in the story, but rather the way in which they act out their humanity. The choices they make and the way in which they carry themselves is representative of the human story in general.

Walton's tone in the book is generally irenic, and he does not seem to be trying to use the exegetical conversation as a thin prooftext for some other axe to grind. He remains agnostic to a lot of the hot button questions, leaving space for Christians of good faith to draw varying conclusions. For example, he suggests that Adam and Eve as archetypal figures doesn't preclude the possibility that they were also real, historical individuals. He isn't insistent on his readers adopting an old earth creation. His argument doesn't hang on whether the reader believes in evolution or not.

That being said, his interpretation of the texts at hand do indeed open the door much wider for Christians adopting such views, and it seems like a lot of the criticisms he's received hinge on that fact. As a reviewer, I can't speak to what Walton's end game is here, but I'll say that to me it seems that no matter what our slippery slope fears may be, we should not let the tail wag the exegetical dog. Even if we fear what evolution might imply, the questions at the heart of biblical studies and scientific inquiry have always been, "What is true?" rather than, "What fits our existing system?" If Genesis 1 is indeed an ontological rather than material origin story, then we can't force it to be about origins anyway.

Another significant shift in Walton's thinking (spurred by the work of his son) is that Genesis 3 is not about punishment, and it's not even about sin. He considers the chapter to be a divine warning against eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the resulting consequences when they do end up eating it, but he holds that it is not until the NT that this is reimagined as a sin and resulting punishment. The famous "curse" of Genesis 3 is not so much divine retribution for disobedience, and it's not even aimed at the humans themselves. Instead, it's the reintroduction of disorder and chaos into their community as a result of their decisions. This is fairly obviously difficult to square with the evangelical imagination, for which Genesis 3:16 is a keystone of the Creation-Fall-Redemption frame. Not only that, but it's also uncomfortable for the average evangelical to conceive of the NT as recasting an OT text from what it originally meant.

Evaluation
It should be said right away that this book is really only for those who, like me, are nerds for this kind of thing. The book isn't going to make a whole lot of sense unless you're already familiar with Walton's other work. It's mostly an academic retrospective rather than anything remotely standalone.

That leads me to my biggest critique of this book, which is that I think it would've been served well by a slightly different format. This isn't just a retrospective on The Lost World of Genesis One, but on all seven of the Lost World books as well as on what he's written in his Genesis commentary, his OT hermeneutics textbook, and others. If you're familiar with all of that as I am, then this relatively light summary of shifts and adjustments is fairly easy to follow. But I think it could have been a lot stronger and more accessible if it didn't assume so much prior context. Ironically, all those other books are driven by the Ancient Near Eastern cultural context that we don't have contained within the Bible, and here we have a book that really only makes sense with a ton of Waltonian context that isn't contained within.

What I would love to see is a single-volume Lost World of Genesis that draws together his main insights from the other books into something that is still roughly the same size. Those books have meaningfully shaped the way I see the text and think about the question of origins, but it's difficult to refer them to folks ("Just read these 7 Lost World books, this commentary on Genesis, and this textbook on Hermeneutics and then let's resume this conversation!").

As mentioned above, I'd recommend this book if and only if you're already familiar with Walton's work and you're curious how his mind has shifted over time. It's a good book, but it needs a lot of context in order to make sense.

DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of a fair, unbiased review.

This is a book for scholars, the depth that the book looks into in terms of Genesis verse by verse and sometimes it seems like word by Word is impressive. The ordering of the content is looked at along with a good look at the ancient near Eastern myth and supporting evidence what might’ve been happening at this time. The work looks at other supporting evidence such as the dead sea scrolls and what there is written in the first few centuries after the birth of Christ.. this is a way to look at the meaning of the verses and how they might be translated to work in a context such as today. There is a section on the fall as well. Which is one that I took my time over, especially the references to Tom Wright. This book made me think however it is most definitely not one for the faint hearted.. the care shown to dig into this topic and unpack Genesis and what is the breath of God is amazing. This for me remains a reference book useful for sermons and supplement theological debate rather than a book to read from cupboard to cover..

"New Explorations in the Lost World of Genesis" is an important literary work both on a scholarly and personal level for anyone who has ever read Genesis or the Bible. John Walton's plethora of Biblical knowledge and understanding of ancient culture is awe-inspiring, thought-provoking, and completely intriguing. His writing helped me, as a layperson, to navigate the complexities of Old Testament biblical ideologies and put them in perspective for a modern setting. The work is well-sourced and skillfully composed.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.