Would the "6 days" of creation ever have been reinterpreted as "6 epochs" if it weren't for scientists?

Answer 1

No. A day is a day.

Long time periods do not fit the Genesis account. For example, plants were created on day 3. The sun and moon, however, were put into place on day 4. How would plants survive millions of years between day 3 and day 4 without the sun?

Also, many plants require insects and animals to help in pollination. These were not created until days 5 and/or 6. How did these plants reproduce without pollination.

In addition to this, Genesis 1:14 talks about days, years, and seasons. If a day is millions of years then what is a “year” or a “season”? A day is defined in this text as an evening and a morning.

The Hebrew word (“yom”) translated as “day” in this text always means a (24-hour) day when used in conjunction with a number in non-prophetic scripture, as in Genesis 1. In Exodus 20, when the Israelites were told that God created everything in six days and on the seventh day he rested, and that they were to remember the seventh day as the Sabbath, they knew that the Sabbath came every Saturday. They knew “day” was not a vague term for an undefined period of time.

Answer 2

Well, the day he said Let There Be Light wasn't a day until that happened, was it? It was Night, right?

I think we would have figured that one out for ourselves.

Especially as we measure a day by sunrise, which is determined by the rotation of the earth, which goes around the sun, where the light comes from. There's a lot of factors to the scientific definition of "DAY" that didn't apply until right into the creation process.

But then, scientists don't even agree if a billion if 1,000,000,000 or 1,000,000,000,000. Thats a pretty broad disagreement over something as simple as a number.

So I'm somewhat dubious about their view of the bible too.

Answer 3

That's a good question. I took the word 'day' from Genesis 1:8 and did a concordance search on it.

Strong's Number: 03117
Original Word Word Origin
~wy from an unused root meaning to be hot
Transliterated Word TDNT Entry
Yowm TWOT - 852
Phonetic Spelling Parts of Speech
yome Noun Masculine
Definition

1. day, time, year
1. day (as opposed to night)
2. day (24 hour period)
1. as defined by evening and morning in Genesis 1
2. as a division of time 1b
3. a working day, a day's journey
4. days, lifetime (pl.)
5. time, period (general)
6. year
7. temporal references
1. today
2. yesterday
3. tomorrow

There are a lot of meanings for words in Hebrew. So it can mean any of those definitions.

Answer 4

Be aware that the day in Genesis 1 is not defined as 12 or 24 hours. That idea is especially true of day 1,2, and3. (The sun, moon, and stars were created on day 4).
The same hold for Christ death on the cross; assuming 6:00 PM sunset,and 6:00 AM sunrise; he was dead about 39 hours; yet 3 nights and 3 days.

Answer 5

Scientists haven't changed my mind. God said 6 days and it was 6 days. No scientist will ever change my mind. The Lord doesn't lie, but men do. The Lord knows all knowledge and I could write a book on what scientist do not know. Not all things that appear right are right.

Answer 6

Anyone who has a clue about hebrew knows that many words have a wide latitude of meaning... it's only fanatics who take one english translation as absolute truth that insist a "day" is 24 hours; even in english a "day" can be an era.

Answer 7

Of course, if it weren't for scientists, you'd probably have died in childbirth or by some horrible disease. Not to mention the computer you're typing on!

Answer 8

no.

early church fathers wrote that the 6 days creation isn't necessarily literal. and this was in, what, the year 300?


lost.eu/21618

Answer 9

Unlikely. Re-interpreting scripture in the light of real scientific discoveries is one of the favourite hobbies of theists.

Answer 10

Not by me. The scriptures often use "day" to depict an "epoch" or period of time.