Were the 6 days God utilized to create the earth 24-hour days or something more...?

Question

Then we define a day as now?

Could you back up your beliefs with Biblical quotes (wow, I almost never ask for those!) as well as your own reasoning on the subject? Did the antediluvian people live in time separated by days & hours? Knowledge of ancient calendars would be a plus here as well. This is not a subject I know a great deal about and I'd love to hear what you all think and know about it and perhaps learn something new.

For my non-Christian friends, this is a religious question aimed at Christians for the most part but, like myself, I know many of you have read the Bible and formed your own opinions on the subject. What did you interpret the Bible as saying about the length of days? Did you feel it was clarified or contradicted throughout the rest of your reading? Please give examples too of how ancient calendars and ideas add to or take from your belief.

I understand why days are as they are today. This is a question about the past. Thank you for your answer!

Answer 1

I am not an expert on ancient Hebrew by any means, but here is one interpretation. In the Genesis account, the Hebrew word for day was "yom" which was used in several different ways to mean a period of time with a beginning and an end. It could have meant 24 hours, but it is not necessary to believe that; it could have meant a longer day, an eon, or just the beginning and ending of a particular creative period. The point was that creation took place in phases, but that creation came completely from the will of God, who oversaw and was pleased with that creation. The first "day" of creation was more a time of separating light from darkness (some think this means matter and anti-matter, light matter from dark matter, but who knows?). As far as ancient calendars, the creation account deals with a time far removed from the kind of calendar keeping done with such elegance by peoples such as the Mayans and Egyptians.

I read all the time on this forum "it's a bunch of primitive fairy tales." One can believe it as myth, literal history, or theological metaphor, but I can assure you that this creation account has survived because it strikes a chord within many people, and because it is a sophisticated scripture both theologically and linguistically. You will of course receive different responses from those better versed in rabbinical studies; I am Christian. Thank you for asking a good question.

Answer 2

This is a tough question. Most of us on here know our bible but physics and earth science ........... well, that's another story. lol I looked up a bit about it. This is a passage from an article I found that tells exactly how long a day was when the earth was first created.

"Tracing these tiny milliseconds back for 4.5 billion years adds up to a very significant amount of time for a solar day. I have determined that the day/night rotation was 63,000 seconds shorter than the present 86,400 seconds it is today. This would put the Earth's rotation at about 6.5 hours per day/night cycle, when it was created, 4.5 billion years ago.

So a day was not 24 hours which we knew, it was 6.5 hours. Of course by the time the first people evolved this was longer but how much longer? I don't know but I have a hunch, that may answer our question as to why the bible says people lived 900 years back then. My guess is they weren't years equal to ours if the days weren't equal to ours.

Now, if you want my opinion........ lol in another place in the bible it says, "A day to the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day." So I believe the 6 "days" of creation were thousands or even millions or year days. I believe God set up evolution, a wonderous system by which He made living things from other living things. Thanks for asking such a provocative question my atheist friend. You are certainly a tolerant person listening to many different people's views that are not necessarily your own. That is a good quality to have.

Answer 3

Great Question!
God created the earth in 6 24hour day periods. The Bible was written to us in a way that we'd understand it. So like today a day is 24 hours long, so it was back then. The earth orbitted the earth like it did then thus giving us the same amount of daylight and darkness as it did back then.

Some have argued that well it says in the Psalms that a day is like a thousand years to God so the 6 days of creation = a thousand years but that is poor exergesis! You can't take one scripture and try and elevate it as the measuring rod for the rest of the Bible unless the Bible specifically states that! Plus that verse says a day is LIKE a thousand years. It doesn't say it IS a thousand years! (Ps. 90:4).
No, a day is a day is a day like we know it. Of course to the Jewish culture a day started at 6 p.m. not at midnight or at 6 a.m. but it was still the same amount of time as we know it.

Answer 4

I'm no expert but I would like to make a comment (don't know if it was already brought up before).

we judge a day (24 hours) based on the rotation of the earth relative to a point-- usually the sun or the moon.

If God didn't create the earth until the third day and the sun and moon until the fourth day (I think) then I don't see how a day before that could mean 24 hours.

Answer 5

well, I think it was meant to be taken literally. and when christians say "Dont take everything the bible says literally" they are making excuses.

I am pretty sure the bible was being literal when they said moses was 600+ "years" old.

Why wouldnt "days" also be meant literally?
how would that be metaphorical?

One last note, the bible has very clearly stated that the earth is about 6,000 years old. While most scientist would agree that the age of the earth is closer to about 4.5 billion years old.

Answer 6

According to the Bible, days in his eyes are centuries to us.

"Indeed, in your sight a thousand years are like a single day, like yesterday-already past- like an hour in the night." ~Psalm 90:4

It's wierd that God would have a concept of days (our days). We created the idea of day, which is actually different for each ancient culture, as a unit of measurement. God keeping track of days does not make sense.

Answer 7

The Bible does not mention how long it took for Jehovah to create the EARTH, it mentions that he took "6 days" to PREPARE the earth for life as we know it now.

The earth was already there at the beginning of the first day.

Answer 8

For the record I'm an atheist evolutionist (although I don't actually know much about it). But I was raised catholic.

I don't recall who it was, but I'm pretty sure that someone in my family explained that the 6 days were actually comprised of millions of years each - in other words that was not to be taken literally.

I've always liked that theory - don't know why more people can't just accept it instead of getting all freaked.

Answer 9

A day to God is as a 1000 years to us. It is in the bible, but I can't recall exactly where off the top of my head. Sorry, I guess you can look it up if you want.

Answer 10

I'm just thinking about how quickly I can t-shirts made that say "Could you back up your beliefs with Biblical quotes?" That is the funniest thing I've read in a long time.