Garnet

I don't even know what phrase to put in Google that would even begin to answer this question, so please bear with me.

In the last month, I've seen several Christian apologists claim that the creation story in Genesis is correct because the words day, morning, night etc. actually meant a passage of time or an era, rather than an actual day, morning or night. This has been used to defend the creation story while at the same time acknowledging that the earth is more than 6,000 years old and that evolution is a real process.

Can any Hebrew scholars in here shed some light on this claim? Does anyone know why it's popping up with such frequency?

spin

They are just bullshitting, based on modern understandings of the English.

Genesis 1 is amongst other things an institutionalisation of the Shabbat. It would make no sense if we were not working with ordinary days. Besides, why would a writer go to such care to use terms which were so clearly related to ordinary days, "morning", "evening", "day", "night"? What you get from xian apologists is a mere rationalisation of a text which would otherwise be uncomfortable to them in this day and age. It would have been no problem in a less scientific age, but it's hard for them to turn their backs on the science, so they try to fudge the problem claiming the terms don't really mean what they say.

As there are other problems for a literalist xian in a scientific age to deal with, such as light before there was a sun, they may as well learn to face the fact that the text was not written with a scientifically educated audience in mind. This in no way detracts from the literary merit of the text (whose complexities I must underline).


spin

Garnet

Thank you for the comments, spin.

One of the people who mentioned this day meaning passage of time or an era just sent me the author and the name of the book from which she took the idea.

It is A Matter of Days by Hugh Ross.

Has anyone read this one?

Toto

A Matter of Days by Hugh Ross.

Hugh Ross is an astronomer-turned-minister who is trying to get the Bible to fit in with science. Chapter 1 is available on line. Answers in Genesis rebukes him.

Garnet

Thank you Toto..spent some time yesterday reading. He's got YEC in an uproar.

spin, do you have any links about Genesis and Shabbat?

Asha'man

While the day-era idea has been around for a while, Genesis is so wrong that it doesn't help. Notice for a moment that flowering plants were created on the 'day' before the sun and moon. Now, science tells us that the sun and moon and earth all date from around 4.6 billion years ago, and that flowering plants showed up somewhere around 130 million years ago. Clearly, even if you ignore the length of times involved, the order of events is flatly contradicted. Genisis is just wrong, based on the evidence we have today.

Garnet

Thank you Asha'man. I agree. Part of what this author is saying is that Genesis has "dual revelations" and he attempts to reconcile the order of events in Genesis with the fossil record. From what I've read in the past two days, this attempt is circular at best. Once I'm better able to phrase some good questions, I intend to post in EC re: the order of evolution vs the order in Genesis vs the order as proposed by this author.

In here though, I'm really trying to focus on the argument about the Hebrew word for day. It's been difficult because when I'm using "Hebrew word for day" in Google, I come up with a lot of YEC and other creationist sites arguing over this theory. The only two sites I've found so far that seem to be based on the language of Hebrew are:

http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/3_day.html This one doesn't really explain very much.

http://www.servantsnews.com/sn9707/s70703.htm This one is about the sabbath and there are a couple of paragraphs relevent to my questions.

I'm continuing the search, but any help from Hebrew scholars out there would be greatly appreciated.

Chili

I am not a scholar by any stretch of the imagination but I do have an opinion of the day/night sequence of Gen.1

The seven days spell out (and therefore create in the "God said,") the journey of faith for the Jews.

Significant with regard to your question is "the day with evening that followed and morning came" except on the seventh day when evening did not follow the day. This seventh day is, or should be, called Sunday today.

The day when evening does not follow the day is when we are born into eternal life and that will be the day we have no need for a lights or the sun to make our days and nights bright (Rev.22:5).

Garnet

Thank you Chili. What you are saying about the seven days spelling out the faith for the Jews is pretty much matching what I'm finding. Thanks for pointing me towards Revelation. I'll be checking that out.

I've also found sources that say anytime that a number is associated with the word day, that means a 24 hour period. Anyone know about that?

Chili

I could have added that since the Jews are still waiting for the messiah Saturday will be their day of obligation . . . until Sunday sets them free from their slavery and sin.

In Catholicism Sunday is the seventh day of the week (some European calenders have it that way) but in protestant countries Sunday is the first day of the week to show that they are willing to put God first in their life.