David Livingston<\/b><\/p>\n
We recognize that there is considerable difference of opinion on this subject even among evangelical Christians. Without going into the variety of interpretations, we feel there are some basic \u201cgivens\u201d that must be taken into account when deciding how long a day was in the Creation Account.<\/p>\n
1. The definition of a \u201cday.\u201d Hebrew yom,<\/i> in this passage is \u201cevening and morning.\u201d Even in our time, this is the Hebrew concept of a \u201cday.\u201d It is measured from sundown to sundown. And it is used this way more than 100 times in the Old Testament – always meaning 24 hours. If the writer of Genesis 1 wanted to convey the impression of 6 literal days, would he have worded it differently? If he meant long ages<\/i> for each day, he could have used another word –olam<\/i>.<\/p>\n
2. Each new day in Genesis 1 is designated with an ordinal number <\/b>\u201cfirst,\u201d \u201csecond,\u201d etc. Ordinal numbers are used as a limiting factor in determining the length of a day. They are used to indicate a 24 hour day over 200 times in the Old Testament, 100 times in the Pentateuch (five books of Moses) alone!<\/p>\n
3. The basic meaning of yom<\/i> which can be found in any Hebrew lexicon is a normal day. 95% of the time it is used this way; 1200 times in the singular, 700 times in the plural.<\/p>\n
In only 5% of the cases (65 times), it is used for an indefinite period of time. An example would be \u201cthe day of the Lord,\u201d which clearly does not mean a normal day. Usually, there are words added to clarify the meaning, like yom tab<\/i> which means a \u201clong time.\u201d Again, the usual meaning is a normal day in almost all cases. When it does not mean a normal day, the wording is such that it clearly has another meaning.<\/p>\n
4. The \u201cSabbath Day<\/b>\u201d of rest, the seventh day, must<\/i> have been literal! Genesis 1:31\u20132:3 says God \u201crested,\u201d not \u201cis resting\u201d (to this day). It was meant to be a precedent, later described in Exodus 20, where a seven day work-week is compared with the Creation Week. The rest day is meant to be ordy a normal day, or there would be a lot of lazy Israelitesl<\/p>\n
One other interesting passage is Exodus 31:12\u201317. Keeping the Sabbath (a tradition unique to Isreal in the ancient Near East), was to be their witness to the world that they were committed to following YHWH \u2014 the Creator. That is, to the miracle-working God who made<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 0 (Autumn 1987) p. 23<\/p>\n
the universe in six literal days.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, if we believe God worked miracles during the Creation, then the amount of time does not really matter, because miracles eliminate the need for time. He could have actually done it in less time \u2014 in only one day, or even less.<\/p>\n
In defining the length of the \u201cday\u201d in Genesis 1, one should consider whether he is trying to accomodate to evolutionary philosophy, so-called \u201cscience.\u201d Rather, should he not allow himself to be \u201cstuck\u201d with the short days of Genesis and a miracle-working God? <\/b>And go on from there, in spite of the attitude of others in our \u201cscientific age\u201d?<\/p>\n
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.<\/p>\n
As many as received Him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to those that believe on His Name. (John\u2019s Gospel, Chapter one.)<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 0 (Autumn 1987) p. 24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
David Livingston We recognize that there is considerable difference of opinion on this subject even among evangelical Christians. Without going into the variety of interpretations, we feel there are some basic \u201cgivens\u201d that must be taken into account when deciding how long a day was in the Creation Account. 1. The definition of a \u201cday.\u201d … Continue reading “HOW
\nLONG ARE THE \u2018DAYS\u2019 OF GENESIS 1?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}