Originally posted by LouisBooth
"But apparently you think that their conclusions should be totally disregarded "
Please see my challege. As I was pointed out by someone recently, words should be defined by their usage. thus please show me where it says a nonliteral morning or evening using those words. Thanks
Sure, Louis. Since you apparently missed them the first time around:
Post #27 by Sinai:
Why is it that each creative day begins with
evening and ends with
morning? Thats backwards from the way we as humans think of a day, since we begin the day when we get up in the morning and end it when we go to bed at night. Sure, some might point out that it is Jewish tradition to begin the day at sunset and end it at the next sunset. But thats begging the question, since the reason for that Jewish tradition is the wording in the first chapter of Genesis. Could there be another reason or a greater cosmic thought that Genesis One is telling us?
The Hebrew for evening is
erev. The root of
erev means mixed-up, stirred together, disorderlywhich tends to be our visual sensation of being in the dark.
The Hebrew for morning is
voqer or
boker. Its root means discernible, able to be distinguished, orderlywhich tends to be our visual sensation at the coming of day.
Ancient Jewish commentaries on Genesis indicate that the root meanings help the phrase take on cosmic significanceperhaps of sufficient importance to be repeated at the close of each of Gods creative days: Throughout the time of Gods creative activity, there was a systematic flow from chaos and disorder (evening) to order (morning). God brought order from chaos in the creation of both the universe and of our own world. The Bible also informs us that God desires to bring order from chaos in our own personal lives
.
Post #29 by Sinai:
Try the first chapter of Genesis, Louis. How do you have a "literal evening or a literal morning" without the sun (doesn't definitely show up in the scriptures until the fourth day) or probably the earth (doesn't definitely show up in the scriptures until the third day, though it is possible to place it earlier depending upon one's interpretation of various words and phrases).
Post #32 by Sinai:
Yes, we are all in agreement on that point, Hank. But as I originally added in the next sentence,
"some might point out that it is Jewish tradition to begin the day at sunset and end it at the next sunset. But thats begging the question, since the reason for that Jewish tradition is the wording in the first chapter of Genesis."
The question was not whether the Jews traditionally started the day at sunset. The question was whether there might be a
reason for Moses' use of the terms in that order. Ancient Jewish commentators thought there was significance in the root terms--and I merely passed that on.
Must temporarily close out at this point in order to place a bid on eBay. Will continue later....