Can a literal interpretation of Genesis fit with an old earth theory?

Question

How about a young earth/ old universe stance? What is your "literal" interpretation of Genesis; does the use of the word "day" necessarily refer to a 24-hour period? Give your views, and reasons behind them, and please, no criticising others; just state your opinion and any related links or sources.

Answer 1

I think too many things in Genesis would have to be interpreted too loosely to get the Bible to fit with an old earth theory.

If each of God's days were millions/billions/etc. years, then there were only plants on earth for millions of years (one day) and the next day God added animals - the CO2 and O2 levels wouldn't work out for plants to live that long without animals on the planet. With 24 hour days, the animals arrived the next day and started using up the oxygen the plants had given off since the day before.

Salvation by faith in Christ requires that there was a real man, Adam and his wife, Eve who disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. If God had used evolution to create a figurative Adam, representing the first group of what could be called "men", then who sinned? I think it's too much of a stretch to say that once humans evolved, God claimed them as being in His image, and they as a whole disobeyed Him and ate of the forbidden fruit.

Instead, I do believe that God did it in six 24 hour days. He made light in the sky - then He made the sun, moon and stars. That does not contradict the fact that there are stars millions of light years away.

He made Adam, a mature, grown man (maybe he'd look 18, maybe 25, but a grown man). There's no contradiction with observable science to say that God made the planet and the universe mature also. Observable science says that animals and plants reproduce after their own kind. That's in agreement with Genesis.

The distance that separates the continents requires that either they have been steadily moving at their current speed for billions of years, or that there was a catastrophic event that moved things around alot in a relatively short period of time. The forty days of rain, followed by a year of flood was that catastrophic event.

To believe the Genesis story of creation does not require throwing out science. Science is the study of what can be observed. Genesis does not contradict science. Science in fact confirms the Bible.

Answer 2

The word "literal" is susceptible to misunderstanding, I would prefer to use the word "plain sense reading" of the text. Like others have noted, God defined the "day" no less than 6 times with "an evening and a morning, the X day". Thus it can ONLY mean an ordinary day. To say it can mean any other time would be to throw all the meaning of the words in the text into question and make understanding of the text impossible. Moreover, in Exodus 20 where God was giving the 4th commandment, He closed the loop by saying that "For in 6 days God made the heavens and the earth and all there is in them." I am sure Moses took those words to plainly mean that it was 6 ordinary days, otherwise it would mean that God is incapable of normal communication!

The plain sense meaning can only fit a young universe/earth view.

Answer 3

with a literal interpretation of genesis it is impossible to come to the conclusion that the word "day" was referring to a 24-hour time period, because according to the narrative the sun was not even created until the fourth day. even the ancient hebrews would have known that the sun is what determines how long a 24- hour day is. if you want to read it literally, you might make the argument that the next three days were actual 24-hour time blocks, but since the previous four uses of the word "day" could not have been literal 24-hour solar days, then it can be assumed that the last few were not either, and that the word "day" is just a convenient word to describe a stage of time.

Answer 4

well a day cant last all that long since Adam was the 6th, then god rested on the 7th. God then created eve in Adams lifetime so his day of rest was over. And the age of Adam wasn't 1 billion years. So you cant have both. Bible says that the earth is 6000 years old based on the math of ages from the time of Adam. And the universe is only 5 days older than Adam. God defined day and night. There is no way to intemperate a day in Genesis being more than a day now. If anything a day would be shorter if you consider the decaying rotation of the earth. It must have slowed since then, but that doesn't really matter.

Answer 5

I don't think they can fit together. I don't think that the authors meant for Genesis to be read literally and the translation may have affected how time was represented (Ancient Greek uses the word 40 for many, so 40 may not mean 40). How can a day be a day before the sun? Why would time have any meaning for a divine being for whom life is forever, why would he count?

Answer 6

It is abundantly clear that The "days" during which God created the entire universe do not refer to the period of rotation of one little planet in one solar system in one galaxy that had not even been created yet! Talk about egocentric! Hopefully people realize that a period of 24 hours is not a "day" anywhere in the universe except on this little pebble where we live; that a "day" is a different length of time on every planet in the cosmos; and that away from the surface of a planet, in space, there is no such thing as a "day". Which is why the Bible tells us that a day or thousands of years are the same thing to God, Who exists outside of time.

Answer 7

Because God "wrote" Genisis it is a "Day" in his sense. That is an unknown length of time. He also said that the end was near about two thousand yaers ago. To me a "day" was defined by God, not us, so it could be thousands of years to be a single day. But he is God, so he could do anything in 24 hours. More so because there were no witnesses to be confused by things suddenly changing.

Answer 8

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



Sounds like a normal 24-hr day to me

Answer 9

Here is the way I see it, the christians need to make up their mind whether the bible is literal, or metaphorical. If it's literal, that means it's 100% literal, and your god supposedly created the earth in 6 days and rested on the seventh. That also means your god is not all-powerful, because he gets tired and has to rest sometimes.If it's metaphorical, that means it's ALL metaphorical, god, jesus, the crucifixion, all of it. Quit jumping back and forth over the fence.

Answer 10

Man has not been on this planet for 6,000 years. Try a bit over 40,000 years.

Even with the "thousand years to us = one day to god", it still doesn't add up.