| Back | Contents | Next |
First let us note that the Hebrew yome, usually translated day, has two basic but different meanings. The first meaning is of a full twenty-four-hour calendar day or the daylight time of a calendar day. The second meaning is of some defined event or interval of time that is not a calendar day. Here is an example where yome refers to a calendar day: “But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered” (Jonah 4:7). Here are four examples in two verses where yome refers to some interval of time or event: “For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations” (Ezekiel 30:3). “‘In that day,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted’” (Micah 4:6). To correctly understand the first two chapters of Genesis, we will need to carefully distinguish between these uses of yome.
The text below is the first chapter of Genesis, with much of its text omitted, and some seemingly irreverent replacements:
In the beginning,
God did something.
And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
God did something.
And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
God did something.
And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
God did something.
And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
God did something.
And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
God did something.
And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
When any author uses repetition or some other literary structure in a passage, we must take notice. The whole point of reading, after all, is to accurately receive what the author is transmitting. This becomes especially important when the Author is God Himself. Obviously God thought it important that we know what He did on which day, and that these days were calendar days; only calendar days have evenings and mornings. The days were not indefinite periods of time or groups of events. To illustrate this point, God could have simply given us the events themselves:
In the beginning,
God did something.
God did something.
God did something.
God did something.
God did something.
God did something.
In this hypothetical case, we would still know what God did and in what sequence. It is thus clear that God wanted us to know on what day He did things. But if this were all, God could have merely separated the days with something like this:
In the beginning,
God did something.
The next day,
God did something.
The next day,
God did something.
The next day,
God did something.
The next day,
God did something.
The next day,
God did something.
But God did not use any of these shorter versions. Instead, as seen in the full version above, He followed His description of each day’s events with the same statement: And there was evening and there was morning, the Xth day. Furthermore, this uniform and repetitive use of And there was evening and there was morning, the Xth day tells us that these days were themselves uniform. In other words, they measured out the same amount of time. We are left with the task of calibrating that unit of time—that is, we must determine how long these days were. And that is an easy task: “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years’” (Genesis 1:14). This was part of God’s work on the fourth day, so, at the very least, the fifth day onward was defined by solar day and solar night. Since Scripture makes a point that the days were uniform in length, all of the days were twenty-four-hour34 days. There is not really any alternative calibration for the day length that would make any sense. It is perhaps worth noting in passing that, had God created the universe over billions of years or something, being a God of truth, He surely would have given us different time references.
We thus conclude that the references to days that had evenings and mornings in Genesis chapter 1 refer to ordinary twenty-four-hour calendar days. This is plain and unambiguous; there is no poetry or literary imagery present that might suggest otherwise. Let us thus state the matter frankly and boldly: God, a firsthand witness, teaches us in His infallible Word about the events of the creation—about work He Himself performed—that He did the creation work in six twenty-four-hour days.
We have now accomplished the most important goal of this book: we have proven that God, by Himself, created this universe in six twenty-four-hour days ex nihilo. Our next goal is to be able to read the simple, straightforward narrative of Genesis 1 and 2 with understanding. By seeing the truth for ourselves, we will not be troubled by false Framework Hypotheses. Let us be in awe of Him who did so much great and vast work in less than a week.
34Optional Science: The twenty-four hours of Genesis could have been slightly different from our current twenty-four hours. We know, using highly precise atomic clocks, that the earth does not always rotate at exactly the same speed. Further, major geologic events, such as, most particularly, the flood of Noah, may alter the mass distribution of the earth, thus changing its rotation speed. You may experience this for yourself. Sit in an office chair that revolves freely and set yourself to spinning. Now stick out your legs. Your rotation speed will slow. Pull them in again. Your rotation speed will increase. Now you get to explain what you are doing to the boss.
| Back | Contents | Next |