An argument for Genesis as historical narrative

I originally quoted this in the combox of another post, but thought it'd be worth elevating to the front page for wider reference. It's an argument from Dr. Kurt Wise in his book Faith, Form, and Time for understanding Genesis as historical narrative rather than allegory.

But should the Genesis account be taken at face value? Is it intended to convey history? What qualifies the Book of Genesis as historical narrative literature?

Genesis lacks many characteristics of non-historical Hebrew literature. Characteristics common in Hebrew allegory, such as storytellers, interpreters, interpretations, and a non-physical-world focus are absent from the Genesis text. Most of the terms of the text (like birds, plants, stars) do not seem to be symbolic. The characteristics of Hebrew poetry with its parallelism of juxtaposed couplets and metrical balance are also absent from most of the text.

Genesis does have many of the characteristics common in Hebrew historical narrative. It contains genealogical lists, for example, as well as narrative with interspersed poetic lines, an emphasis on definitions, frequent use of the direct object sign and relative pronoun, a list of sequential events separated by the special Hebrew phrase called a waw consecutive (waw is pronounced vahv and is usually translated "and" as in "And God said..." or "And the earth was..."), plus an abundance of geographic, cultural, and other verifiable details. Included are a number of other features that in Western literature may indicate non-historical, even poetic narrative (such as numerology, figures of speech, textual symmetry, and phenomenological language) but that are commonly found in Hebrew historical narrative.

The historical texts in Genesis contrast with non-historical narrative. For the most part, seamless connections join the various Genesis accounts, including those widely accepted as historical. But the short, non-historical passages within the Genesis account -- for example, Adam's response at seeing Eve (Gen. 2:23) and the song of Lamech (Gen. 4:23-24) -- as well as poetic renditions of Genesis passages found in other places in Scripture (such as in Ps. 104) contrast sharply with the historical flavor of the Genesis text, including the creation account.

Scripture itself refers to Genesis as historical. The remainder of Scripture (Exod. 20:11; Neh. 9:6; Acts 17:22-29) and Jesus Himself (Matt. 19:4-6) speak of Genesis -- including the creation account -- as if it were to be taken as history. Likewise, most of the Jews and Christians through time have understood the Genesis account to be historical. Since the Genesis account is historical narrative and reliable, its clear claim of a six-day creation should be taken seriously.