What's your understanding of 'days' in Genesis Ch 1 ?

Question

Some say that it is not a literal '24 hr day'

Some say 'day' refers to ages or millions or even billions of years.
.
Maybe God used evolution to 'create the world and humans" ?

What's your take on this issue ?

Hi Jen,

Please explain what you mean by 49,000.

What's the significance of this no: is it 7 X 7 X 1000 ?

Answer 1

Gen.2:2,4 All days are one day here and this tells that day spoken of here has more meaning than our 24 hours. { Gen.1:1,2 All Exist. Gen.1:3-25 Prepration of earth that already existed for animals to 26 man.

Day seven [ All LOST in Eden to all SAVED is time given from Adam in day six ].
1656 years is Gen.5:3,6,9,12,15,18,21,25,28 and 7:6; Noah born 1056 is age 600.
0427 years is Gen.11:10,12,14,16,18,20,22,24, 32 ; Gen.12:4 [75 ]; Abraham.
0430 years Exo.7:7[ Moses age 80 ]; 12:40,41; Gal.3:16-18; The Exodus 1/2 mil., heirs
0040 years Num.33:38,39 Aaron 4th, Deut.37:4 Moses 40th, Josh.5:6,10,12 year 40.
0480 years 1Ki.6:1 [ 480 ]; Solomon is king 4 years, gives time in Promised Land.
0036 years 1Ki.11:42 [ 36 of 40 years ]; Solomon dies. 1Ki.2:10,11 David died.
0391st year Judah kings end 2Chr.36:20-23; NO KING UNTIL JESUS SECOND COMING.
0606 years before Christ is in Roman Empire #6 of seven full, a short time in 8th.
2006 years ago, bible years ended, counted as after Christ.
1000 years Rev.20:1-6 [ No Satan, Jesus ends 8th Empire ]; Gen.1:1-31; 2:2,4 [49,000];
7072 years are accounted for from Adam created in day six, Cain killed Abel year 130.
0000 World from Eden with Satan ends in eighth world Empire {Rev.17:10-14 ];
It is a short time to Rev.20:1-6 [ No Satan for 1000 years, all is perfect at 49,000 ];

Eph.2:7; 3:21 World with Jesus is without end John 3:16;

Answer 2

It's unfortunate that peoplestill need to ask this question-but there's a lot of confusion. You aren't alone. Not everyone is going to agree with this, but here goes:

Genesis--and the other 4 books of the Pentatuch--were written at a time when man's understanding of the physical universe was very limited. The Creation story, in particular, is intended to communicate a very important spiritual truth--that God created the universe and everything in it--to a people who were barely past the hunter-gatherer stage of civilization. They could simplynot have comprehended a "scientific explanation.

So I see the Creation story as a metaphorical account that communicates it s important message in terms of symbols that made sense to the people to whom it was given. As to the specific question--what does a "day" mean--I don't think it is intended to indicate a specific time period. Rather, I think it is intend to indicate a step, or stage, in the process of creation. As an illustrative exercise to see what I mean, try substituting the term "stage" for day: On the first day (substitute In the first stage) . . . .

Just as a postscript. Much of the Bible is historical--there's clear evidence of that. But the Bible uses metaphors extensively--often explicitly. For example, the story of the "lost sheep"--one of Christ's parables--is clearly a metaphor. That takesaway noting from the lesson it teaches. The same is true of the Creation story.

Answer 3

The only reason why people don't take it literally is because the earth has been proven to be much older than 6000 years. Its a case of backfitting science into the bible but not in the same way as done with the Quran.

If God intended to use it as a metaphor, why use it at all? How do we know which things to take literally and which as a metaphor?

People who don't take the literal meaning of day in the bible accept the uselessness of the bible to know anything, imo

EDIT: creeklops, u say that God played a joke on us. What if every single thing said by God in the bible is a joke?

Answer 4

Well a little bit of research into Genesis gives us an easy answer. The word for light speaking of the Sun refers to the Sun being a light holder. When God created light it existed apart from the Sun and it was created on the first day so it was available to help the plants and so forth thrive. The Sun is a light holder. God simply created the Sun as a way to hold light much like we use a light bulb. The moon then reflects that light. It's a nice try but when you really look into what the Bible teaches there is nothing unscientific about it.

Answer 5

of course....the "day" of the bible is NOT a literal 24 hour day
of course...evolution is a workable/demonstrable theory
of course..."intelligent design" is not a workable theory
[it is a poorly disguised variation of "nihil ex nihil" school of
thought, which assumes a godhead a priori]

there are other explanations for the "seven days" motif

the Hebrew writers had been influenced under the Babylonian/Egyptian captivities...
the Sumerian/Babylonian/Assyrian cultures had long before established a 7 day and a 7 year cycle...

there was a long standing cultural idiosyncratic behavior of the Jews to not work on the Sabbath...by revisionist history, God himself gives the reason not to work....

check your translations of the words "form" and "void" into Aramaic...

The creation mythos had been done a number of times, this was merely the Hebrew version...check the Amarna texts

at that time, the number "7" was mystically, cosmologically important if not supreme...

as far as your take on the issue...believe whatever you want ...
but remember....
you have to leave your intellect behind, reason does not apply...

you have to make a leap into faith

Answer 6

A calendar day, such as we use today. The text is quite specific: "the evening and the morning were the (whatever number) day".

The baffle-gab about "day" not really meaning "day" is simply a smoke-and-mirrors ploy to preserve the literal interpretation of this myth despite our knowledge, today, that the world was not created by magic in six days. It's an aspect of "believers" trying to hold on to "the god of the gaps" -- every time one of their superstitions is exploded, they take refuge in the hidey-holes that science has not yet gotten around to exploding.

Answer 7

The reference to days in Genesis is for mans understanding. A day to God can be a minute or a billion years - Gods concept of time is not ours...thats why today we dont' understand why God doesnt answer our prayer in the blink of an eye...its in His time - not ours! Rest assured though, He'll get the job done!

Answer 8

To God time is irrelevant, He doesn't exist within our time frame, meaning, to Him a day is like a thousand years. So who knows really how long it actually took to 'make' the earth and universe. I, for one, believe He purposely doesn't want anyone to be able to figure out how old the earth is. He has given scientist the tools to come up with an estimate, but He's just playing with their heads. People ask if God has a sense of humor, don't you think He's laughing at all the scientists trying to figure out how old the earth is? And they never will.

Answer 9

i take it to mean a literal 24 hour day. in all other references to time in scripture it seems to mean it literally. i'm not sure why people tend to want to believe that creation could not have happened in a literal 6 day period, except to make room for a more evolution way of thinking. we don't question if Jesus truly died and rose again in a 3 day period.

Answer 10

If it refered to millions of years, than how could plant life have survived for that long w/o sunlight. It makes no sense logically. So my answer is an average day.