The Seven Days of Genesis 1-2
The question is sometimes asked" Are these days literal days, that is, are they days as we know them, or are they days in some other sense?" The idea that they are long ages of time may be thought to fit in better with current scientific thought which holds that the earth has existed for vast aeons of time, these aeons being necessary to accommodate evolutionary theory. However, it may be said that many non-evolutionists think that the Scripure supports a day-age theory. It has also been pointed out that the day-age theory has been around for a long time, long before evolution in its modern form was conceived. From this it can be argued that, unlike the gap theory, it has not been introduced to accommodate science.
At the back of the minds of those who espouse the day-age theory there may be the thought that the Almighty God does not work a six day week in the same way as his creature man and then need to rest on the seventh day. The days of God must surely be longer than man's days, just as God's existence is longer than man's. However, on this basis God's days must be eternities just as his existence is eternal. It may also be thought that because the heavens are extremely vast, past ages must also be so. This does not however necessarily follow. The points made above can I believe be answered as follows:-
(1) Had man been given the job of creating the universe no doubt he would have taken untold ages to do it, if he ever could have done it. In other words, God is so great that he can compress into six days what man would have taken aeons to complete.
(2) The vastness of the heavens is to impress us with the the greatness of the one with whom we have to do. Vast periods of time in the past would not do this as even if they existed they could not be known by simple observation. However, some impression of the heavenly distances can be obtained by simply looking up at the sky (Job 22:12).
Grounds that might be put forward to show that the days of Genesis 1 are not days as we know them are as follows:-
(1) The first three days passed before the heavenly bodies were made which determine the length of days and years. The days of Genesis 1 must therefore have been measured in some other way.
(2) The days of Genesis 1 began with the evening and apparently ended with the morning. They were like the evenings and mornings of Daniel 8:14. It is no real answer to this to say that this is merely the Jewish day which starts at six o'clock in the evening, because that day was probably itself based on the days of Genesis 1. It can therefore be reasonably argued that there is a warning in the passage itself that the days are not to be taken as days as we know them.
(3) Peter in his second epistle tells us that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8). This statement is no doubt based on the words in Psalm 90:4 which the heading to the Psalm tells us were penned by Moses the compiler of Genesis. In writing this Psalm may not Moses have had in his mind the days of Genesis 1 ?
(4) Days in Scripture do not always mean the literal 24 hour day that we are familiar with. For example, the prophetic days of Daniel are often taken to be years, particularly the days forming the 70 weeks of chapter 9:24-27. The proof of this is in the last half week which corresponds to the three and a half years of Daniel 12:7. (A time, times and a half =1+2+1/2 years) However, this argument would do little more than suggest that the days of Genesis 1 might be simply single years.
(5) Genesis 2:4 refers to the day that Jehovah Elohim made earth and heavens; this day containing the six days of Genesis 1. This can't therefore also be a day as we know it. NEXT