Genesis: 6 literal days?

Question

If the six days of creation weren't literal 24hr days as we understand them today, then why do so many believers recognize the 7th day of our modern week, the "Sabbath" as a day of rest? I'm ok with a day of rest but it doesn't jive with the story of creation.

Answer 1

A day is a day and is based off of one rotation of the Earth on its axis. Unless this rotation was slower or faster then (it wasn't) then a day is still equal to the same time period.

Answer 2

It is pointed out that the evening and the morning were counted as a day. And the Sabbath has even more meaning when you think that the Christian will someday enter God's rest in Heaven where there is no more sin.



Hbr 4:9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.





Hbr 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his.





Hbr 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Answer 3

Yes, Genesis was six literal days, and you are pointing out an inconsistency.



In the KJV OT, starting in Genesis, the word for "day" is yome; it occurs 1422 times in 1250 verses, according to my Bible Software program. There simply isn't space here to post all the pertinent scriptures, demonstrating the consistency of the use of wording in the language.



It is a true statement that "yome" can mean a day, a season, or an indeterminate period of time...but it is ALSO true that throughout the OT, whenever "yome" is used WITH either morning OR evening in the same sentence, it is obvious from the context that it is referring to a period of 24 hours; here are a few examples OUTSIDE of Genesis, yet within the Torah (The Torah is simply The Law, or the First 5 books of the Old Testament):



Exo 10:13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.



Exo 16:23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.



Exo 19:16 And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.



Lev 6:20 This is the offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer unto the LORD in the day when he is anointed; the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a meat offering perpetual, half of it in the morning, and half thereof at night.



Each of these verses, written in the SAME language, using the very SAME HEBREW WORDS AS USED IN GENESIS, by the SAME author, in the SAME part of the Bible as Genesis, leave NO DOUBT as to a 24 hour day...There are far too many more examples to post; Why would the creation week be the ONLY place that these words represent something DIFFERENT?



To interpret differently is to use linguistic gymastics, ignore the rest of the text, and quite preposterous. Why would we pick a few sentences to make exception to common sense?



It is very unfortunate in 2009, there are people and entire websites built around attempts to destroy the credibility of the Bible...Most of them attempt it without the slightest idea of what they are really talking about.



Now, let's keep talking about this Hebrew language of the OT; there is NO PUNCTUATION in Ancient Hebrew!!??&$#@%* Whenever the writer wished to EMPHASIZE something, using ALL CAPS wasn't an option, neither was underlining or exclamation points....How was it done??



Repetition, repetition, repetition...And 3 times repetition is maximum. This is probably why the Bible says God is Holy, Holy, Holy (Isaiah 6:3). It states in Genesis:



Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Gen 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Gen 1:13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Gen 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Gen 1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.



Remember, 3 times repetition is maximum in Hebrew, yet in Genesis, "yome" is used with morning AND evening, for ALL 6 days...This is DOUBLE emphasis to the max by using both morning and evening, and repetition SIX TIMES. Such emphasis, clarity, and repetition is used nowhere else in the Old Testament, I'd say God REALLY wants us to get this.



There is also sound science to confirm this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5725394906886443944 This video is about 29 minutes long and presents scientific peer reviewed, court unrefuted evidence of the age of the earth. Of course, this is very inconvenient to atheists/evolutionists.



Once we have established creation week as a week in the sense we know of, Sunday thru Saturday, it is simply a matter of math to do the geneaolgies in Genesis 5, 11, and Matthew 1 to realize just how close Bishop Ussher is/was. The begats do NOT have gaps; they're just not all listed in the same chapter.



I know there is disagreement among mature Christians regarding this; and I gladly concede it is NOT necessary for salvation to agree upon the age of the earth....But it is exciting to me as a Christian to see the Truth of God's Word revealed; and I think it helps us mature as Christians to realize the Bible STARTS OUT with hermeneutic truth.



Hermeneutical's first definition is PLAIN or LITERAL, and Genesis' truth is very simple and plain... I would remind skeptic Christians that the word "parable" is used consistently PRIOR TO a parable in the New Testament; and Genesis as a book is NOT classified by scholars as Poetry, it is part of the Torah, or Law.



Therefore the poetic use of language such as metaphor, hyperbole, allegory and simile are not used and DO NOT APPLY.

Answer 4

the sabbath is from friday sunset to saturday sunset which starts later on today. You do know that, right? The problem is that man keeps on making God complicated than what he is. The same with the jews legalizing the sabbath. That's why Jesus had to check them everytime they falsely did things. Anywho for every year is a thousand years to God so Jesus dies two years ago according to God's time but for us its 2000 years. It goes with the story of creation its just belief systems like the theory of evolution are killing it my friend. It was six literal days. Man shortens the ability of God.

Answer 5

your absolutely correct, each day was 24 hrs and so is the sabbath. Scrptures found in psalms that express that a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. all that it saying is that time is meaningless to god. that he is eternal and time has no effect on him. he is outside of time. when you start gettnig into each creation day being a thousand years. well the bugs were created on a later day than the plants. a lot of plants would have died before pollinating because some plants require bugs to pollinate or fertilize or what have you.

Answer 6

There are many other references to the Sabbath day being the day of rest, including it being the day of the resurrection, it being the first day of the week.



Mark 16: 2, 9

2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun.

9 ¶ Now when Jesus was arisen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene,

Answer 7

a literal interpretation invites the argument of the other quadrillion celestial objects and their 6 day construction period. this would require a trillion or so years of "creating". the universe is only 14 billion years old.

Answer 8

In the first chapter of Genesis, a day ("Yom" in Hebrew) is described as "an evening and a morning" - a period of darkness (night) followed by a period of daylight. When Moses wrote this (by revelation from God, since he wasn't there), he went out of his way to define what is meant by "day" ("yom"). And unless specifically defined differently, this is ALWAYS the definition of a day.



If each rotation of the earth around its axis lasted a billion years (6 billion years for evolution to occur), then what could possibly speed the earth up to the point in which it revolves around its axis in a 24-hour period? The earth would blow itself apart if it sped up that much. Actually, the earth couldn't go that slow. Friction would stop it completely!



Furthermore, to those who DO actually believe that a "day" represented an "epoch", then just think - a few thousand years of darkness followed by a few thousand years of daylight ("evening and morning") is absolutely NOT conducive to life, evolved or otherwise!



No, each day in Genesis represented a literal 24-hour period of time for the earth to rotate once around its axis, just as the Bible says ("an evening and a morning.")



Good question. Thanks for asking.

Answer 9

A day with God means something very different than it does to us.

In many bible texts it says a day is a thousand years with God.

Other texts says we are still in God's rest day, which occurred after creating Adam.



(2 Peter 3:8) 8 However, let this one fact not be escaping YOUR notice, beloved ones, that one day is with Jehovah as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.







(Hebrews 4:3-10) 3 For we who have exercised faith do enter into the rest, just as he has said: “So I swore in my anger, ‘They shall not enter into my rest,’” although his works were finished from the founding of the world. 4 For in one place he has said of the seventh day as follows: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,” 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter into my rest.” 6 Since, therefore, it remains for some to enter into it, and those to whom the good news was first declared did not enter in because of disobedience, 7 he again marks off a certain day by saying after so long a time in David’s [psalm] “Today”; just as it has been said above: “Today if YOU people listen to his own voice, do not harden YOUR hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had led them into a place of rest, [God] would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 So there remains a sabbath resting for the people of God. 10 For the man that has entered into [God’s] rest has also himself rested from his own works, just as God did from his own.



So his rest day from createing is still future.

We seem to want to put God into our own time frame. Eve thought the birth of her son was the answer to the prophecy of a future seed in the bible. Yet Jesus was born some 4000 years later.



I do believe that God made animals with the ability to adapt to their surroundings which does not mean evolution but variations of the creation. We came from the same two people yet we have humans of different shapes, sizes, colors and personalities.

One of the reasons persons do not believe the bible I think has to do with a lot of Christians who insist on putting it into their terms and time limits. I think the animals were on the earth for billions of years before mankind. I cannot even imagine the time it took to create all the animal kinds.

Answer 10

Maybe that's because the creation story is a collection of much older works, some as far back as the Epic of Gilgamesh, edited into what you see today. In fact, first century texts are totally different from the Bible we see today.

Answer 11

I believe they were literally days, if you were to read the Bible, you would notice it clearly says morning and evening. Additionally, no where else in the Bible is a day, 1,000 or more years.

Answer 12

It could be symbolic. Each "day" could represent a completion cycle. Or, it could be literal in that God worked as fast as the speed of light. Nothing is impossible with God.

Answer 13

In genesis the six days are not our 24 hour days. The bible expresses that gods time is different from our time. Each day to god is a 1000 years

Answer 14

It's the last day of the week in general.To us a day is 24 hours, but to GOD a day is 1000 years.Ask JESUS to share the spirit of truth with you and take your curiosity to HIM for HE is near to those of a pure heart.GOD BLESS!!

Answer 15

Your premise is wrong, the 6 days are literal...GEN1:5

Answer 16

true. the sabbath should really last a billion years or so.

Answer 17

that's the young earth theory..



it absolutely is incorrect.



http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/day-age.html



the real deal.

Answer 18

Because of The Resurrection!! <')))><