How does an approach like that work when we get to Job 38–39? Here’s another take on creation, and once again the only person speaking is God. Unlike Genesis 1, the whole thing is presented as God’s speech, not just a few choice quotes in a third-person narrative.
Do you also have high expectations for transcendent scientific accuracy in Job?
I don’t, in either Job or Genesis. I’m not bothered that we now know a fair bit about births of mountain goats, or that many of the rhetorical questions have lost their punch in our own age. I’m okay with God not using this perfect opportunity to blurt out a bunch of scientific trivia that only God could know so that much-later readers could be impressed. When creation is depicted like constructing a building, complete with cornerstone, foundation, plumb lines and doors, I don’t think God is “spinning quite a tall tale that is utterly false.” I’m curious: do you?