There Was Evening and There Was Morning, the First Day – Genesis 1:5

Considerable controversy has developed over the meaning of “day” in Genesis 1.  These meanings correspond to several different interpretations of the content of Genesis 1, and to the way Genesis 1 is seen in relation to modern scientific understanding of our created world.

And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. (Genesis 1:3-5, ESV)

The Hebrew word for “day” is yom.  It is used of non-specified periods of time like the “day of Yahweh” (the period of time in which Yahweh comes to earth in judgment and ushers in His kingdom) and “the day of salvation.”  Here in Genesis it can refer to the lighted part of the day as opposed to night (Genesis 1:5), a period of roughly 12 hours, and it can refer to the whole 24 hour cycle of dark and light, which we know is caused by the earth’s rotation away from and towards the sun.  In the Hebrew perspective, each 24 hour period begins with evening, not as in our reckoning, with morning.

Six common ways of thinking about the “days” of Genesis 1 are:

(1) Some think that the seven days refer to a literal period of seven days during which God created the heavens and the earth.  This is the traditional interpretation.

(2) Others think that the week refers to seven days of visions that were revealed to Moses.  This view says nothing about how long it actually took Yahweh to create our world.

(3) Some commentators think that the seven days refer to seven indefinite periods of time or seven ages in which God created the heavens and the earth.  They see the days as correlating to the huge spans of time modern scientific thought sees in the geologic development of our earth.

(4) Some have analyzed the seven days as a literary framework that the author used to tell the account of creation.  They think Moses was not intending these days as literal but as poetic.  This view says nothing about how long it actually took Yahweh to create our world.

(5) Still others think that the seven days refer to a literal period of seven days in which the people of Israelite inaugurated God’s cosmic temple.  They see the days as literal 24-hour time periods in which God assigned the purposes for each stage of creation.  This view says nothing about how long it actually took Yahweh to create our world.

(6) The analogical days position sees “days” as analogous to how humans would work, God being seen as a workman in His completion of creation.  This view says nothing about how long it actually took Yahweh to create our world.

The Bible is our ultimate authority for the matter of creation, so scientific comparisons must come after biblical interpretation, driving us to verify our exegesis and test the evidence.  Critical to maintain is divine origination of our universe and an historic disobedience by a historic Adam and Eve.  As long as this view of creation and of man’s fall into sin is maintained we don’t need to characterize alternate views of how God created as either anti-biblical or liberal.  We must stay open to what new discoveries are made in biblical interpretation and scientific interpretation of our world and universe.