What is the meaning of a day in Genesis 1 ?

Question

Is

one day ( sunset from sunrise as in Genesis )

or

Million of year.

or

Something else.


I'd read one claim that TRUE CHRISTIANS believe in 24hr 7 days of creation.

Now I am confused.

Answer 1

Since the Bible is written so man can understand and relate, and God is all powerful and omnipotent and omnipresent and the Creator of everything, my guess is ONE DAY=24 HOURS. Or from sunrise to sunset, however you want to count a day.

Moses knew what a year was. He also knew what a month was. He knew what a million meant. He did not use these terms.

What is to be confused about? Time is something God made for the benefit of Man.

Answer 2

There is much debate about the the true meaning of a day in Genesis. Some claim it to be the same as our day (24 hours), and some claim it to be anywhere between 1,000 and 1 million years. There simply is no consensus. Whether you believe God created the world in literally 7 days or over 7 million years has no bearing on whether or not you're a "true Christian." Faith in Christ is what makes someone a Christian, not how they interperet the biblical account of creation.

Answer 3

That begs the question "Whats a true Christian?" That one has always bugged me. The problem here is that no one on this entire planet is accepted universally as a true Christian. All Catholics are considered flawed Christians by protestants and vice versa. So are orthodox. So are Mormons. When it comes down to it, there is no one we can agree is a true Christian so forget that concept. If you choose to accept every line in the Bible as literal truth then you still have to choose which Bible. There not all the same. Theres also the problem of translation. You can accept that every line of the Bible you own is correct and if you do then the Earth was created in 144 hours and it is the only planet that exists.

Answer 4

There seems to be some debate among believers about it. I have heard everything from 24 hours to seven thousand years to .
Play my silly game for a second.
Look at your keyboard. Was it created? How do you know? If you were supposed to type a certain way if it was created and you didn't want to; how then would you make it non created? I HAVE AN IDEA!! you see millions and millions of years ago there was this plastic molecule and it started to mutate. Yeah that's the ticket. All we need now is funding and "whalla" Now we can type any way we want to. It's an easy trick. Try it with Creation.

Answer 5

In Genesis, it does say day, and it does indicate that this is a period of dark and light, indicating that it could be a literal 24 hour day. It could also be any kind of period of time, since in other areas of the Bible it days a 1000 years is as a day to the Lord...

I really think it might be a bit of arrogance on the part of Xians to think that 24 hours, or a literal day, is what is being referred to in Genesis, because really, it could be any length of time, or no time at all.

Literal interpretation of the Bible is usually something that is demanded by the Fundie Xians, who, really, are a minority amongst the Xian community, especially since there are chunks of the Bible that are obviously supposed to be figurative.

Answer 6

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

and this is said for each day sounds like a 24 hr period to me

it took 6 days and the 7th He rested, real days just like ours today

Answer 7

2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.


The Bible gives physical examples of spiritual truths.
The Sabbath is a physical example of God's salvation.
It is God's rest also the seventh day also called the Day of the Lord.
This also represents Christ' Millennial rule of the world for one thousand years.
You can consider seven physical days for the creation of the world and also consider that God is not yet finished with our creation.
Man is not yet a complete work but is yet in the process of being created to God's righteousness...by faith those who accept the atonement have entered this day of salvation.
But the literal day of the Lord is yet to come.

Consider this sometimes when reading the Bible if a day is one thousand years...What day did Christ come to the world and was resurrected? Day four? Why did Jesus wait to raise Lazrus? What day was it? There are physical things which represent spiritual truths. What was the Manna from heaven?
What was the tree of life? Consider spiritual things and seek God's truths. Consider Christ coming on day four, His being resurected on the third day..His return...The seventh day...the Day of the Lord God's rest.

Answer 8

In the text it says a 'morning and an evening, the first day'. It is clear that it is referring to a literal 24 hour day.
Why would you be confused? The Bible says that the universe was created in 6 literal 24 hour days, in succession. There is nothing to confuse. There is no reference to the days of creation meaning anything different from that.

Answer 9

It is mythology and it is mythology that was ripped off from the older mythologies around it.
Whatever,
In the Hebrew books they use the word for day. It is a specific enough word that the translators from Hebrew to Greek, Latin or English felt it justified specifying the sunrise to sunset part of it because the term is that specific.
The Hebrews had other perfectly good words for longer and unspecified periods of time and used them in their books whenever they felt they were called for.
This is bogus claim that the Hebrews meant to say thousands or millions of years instead of days is one of the typical tricks used by creationists.
According to the Bible creation took one week including a day of rest. That is all. Once you start claiming that it does not say that then you are declaring the bible to be false.

I am not supporting one sect over another here, I am atheist, and regard all of the bible as made up so there is no reason for me to be prejudiced in my understanding or be supporting one sect of Christians over another.

Answer 10

There was no confusion in the early church. Take it the way it's written. In modern times some have tried to justify a time frame to accommodate evolution. That just won't fly. Now between Gen 1:1-2, there is debate. But the rest is a day just as it says.