Barth on astronomy (seriously this time!)

I previously posted a humourous anecdote about the theologian Karl Barth and an astronomer.
This post is more serious.

I was reading some of Church Dogmatics 3.1: The Doctrine of Creation where Barth exegetes Genesis 1:14-18

¹⁴And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, ¹⁵and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so. ¹⁶And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. ¹⁷And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

Here is an extract (p.159-160) concerning "the heavenly bodies"

the unmistakeable stress laid in Gen. 1 is upon their purposiveness. It is to be observed that with the exception of the very last creation - that of man himself - this does not occur in any other creation in so blatant a way as it does at this point where it gives great offence not merely to our modern conceptions but also to those of antiquity. The modern view of the sidereal world, with its reckoning in terms of millions of sun systems and thousands of light years, and the ancient view which found instead very powerful ruling deities, are comparable in the sense that they both seem to exclude, with a kind of magical respect, the question of any purpose in this cosmic system, and especially of its realtionship to the earth and its inhabitants, i.e., the view that man is the purpose of this world. But the present passage says nothing concerning the sidereal world which is not relative to its purpose for the earth, and properly and finally for man. In the last analysis the nature of the heavenly bodies may be stated in terms of their purpose.....

.... the heavenly bodies are no longer deities and lords to whom man owes and shows respect, worships and service, nor, according to modern interpretation, representatives of the infinite universe which absolutely detremines man. On the contrary, they are helps given by God to man. Gunkel is right: "Faith in Yahweh has triumphed over the worship of heavenly bodies." But do we realise what this means? A more radical volte-face cannot be imagined. The author accomplished this in the framework of the pre-Copernican conception of the world. But even the Copernican discovery only means a readjustment within the view which is here questioned not only in its pre-Copernican but also in its Copernican form.

The meaning and purpose of Genesis 1 transcends any historical context or scientific world view. It is not addressing these specifically, but rather, what is the purpose of the universe? what is the purpose of man?

Later chapters of Genesis show the purpose of both is for man to live in covenant relationship with Yahweh.