Am I wrong?

[Digit]

I've been away from here for a looooong time, but recently have felt the need for flexing the grey matter.

I wish to know, am I wrong in thinking that the word for day in Genesis, has numerous meanings, of which one is a 'length of time' and a 'long time'?

There it is, fully loaded and ready to go.

 

[andreha]

I've been away from here for a looooong time, but recently have felt the need for flexing the grey matter.

I wish to know, am I wrong in thinking that the word for day in Genesis, has numerous meanings, of which one is a 'length of time' and a 'long time'?

There it is, fully loaded and ready to go.

Heya Digit!

Welcome back.

I had a look at the strongs hebrew and greek behind the word, and yes it does look like there are different meanings. God separated light from darkness, as He did good from evil, and hope from despair and right from wrong - all by His word.

 

[gluadys]

I've been away from here for a looooong time, but recently have felt the need for flexing the grey matter.

I wish to know, am I wrong in thinking that the word for day in Genesis, has numerous meanings, of which one is a 'length of time' and a 'long time'?

There it is, fully loaded and ready to go.

Depends. When a word is listed in a dictionary, there will usually be many meanings. But when it is used in actual speech or writing the context generally narrows it down to one or very few of those meanings. So the real question is: does the context of Genesis 1 narrow down the possible meanings of 'yom' as listed in a dictionary to one of those meanings?

 

[Yab Yum]

Issa. Metta. Fo.

 

[Assyrian]

I've been away from here for a looooong time, but recently have felt the need for flexing the grey matter.

I wish to know, am I wrong in thinking that the word for day in Genesis, has numerous meanings, of which one is a 'length of time' and a 'long time'?

There it is, fully loaded and ready to go.

You have three or four different meanings to the word day in just the first two chapters of Genesis, You have day as the period of light while the darkness is called night in Gen 1:5. Then even if you take the numbered days literally, they are a different use of the word to first meaning because they include the period from evening to morning, in other words this day includes night time. We also have Gen 2:4 where the word day is used to describe the whole period of creation These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. Gen 2:17 Has God telling Adam he would surely die in the day he ate the fruit. Adam ate the fruit but did not die the same literal day, so either day wasn't meant literally or dying did not refer to literal physical death.

You can also have day and time used in a metaphor when there is no correspondence between the length of time in the metaphor and a specific length of time in real life. Look at the parable of the labourers in the vineyard where you have workers in the vineyard over the period of a day with regular updates of what the time is in the parable. Matt 20:3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, 'You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.'
5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.
6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?'
But there is no direct correspondence between time in the parable and the actual meaning of the parable. It is about people and nations who have served God a long time being jealous of God's blessing to newcomers.

 

[Digit]

Depends. When a word is listed in a dictionary, there will usually be many meanings. But when it is used in actual speech or writing the context generally narrows it down to one or very few of those meanings. So the real question is: does the context of Genesis 1 narrow down the possible meanings of 'yom' as listed in a dictionary to one of those meanings?

Continue...

 

[gluadys]

Continue...

Assyrian covered a lot of ways "day" is used in the creation story, so you can see it has different meanings in different contexts.

In the number sequence it always say "there was an evening and a morning, the Nth day". This closest thing to this in our frame of reference is a single 24-hour day.

But then we get to the second question. Do these days in the story reference any actual days in history? As Assyrian also notes, we have a parable in which landowner goes out at various times of the day and all the times neatly referenced. But it is a parable. Those times only exist in the frame of the parable and not in the frame of actual history.

So even if one does decide the context of "day" points to a single, ordinary day, and not some other more figurative meaning, in what sort of framework does it mean "day"? See Framework Interpretation for a complete analysis.

 

[philadiddle]

As far as I understand the word yom is referring to a single 24 hour day in the Genesis account. As gluadys pointed out, that doesn't mean it was a historical day. In the parable about the boy who cried wolf the word "wolf" is referring to an actual animal within the context of the story, but it's not referring to an actual wolf that once existed. In the same way the word "day" is referring to an actual day within the figurative expression of the creation account, but isn't necessarily referring to a historical day.

 

[Digit]

So what then is your interpretation of day in Genesis, which meaning do you believe it to have?

 

[philadiddle]

So what then is your interpretation of day in Genesis, which meaning do you believe it to have?

Who are you asking? I thought I was being specific but maybe you're asking someone else!?

 

[Digit]

Who are you asking? I thought I was being specific but maybe you're asking someone else!?

I... thought I quoted, but it's ok it wasn't your post.

With that said, is the word day used like this elsewhere in the Bible?

 

[MattLangley]

A lot of it comes down to whether or not you believe the Bible should be used as a science guide. Considering science did not exist for the authors back then it seems very silly to imply anything scientific out of the Bible. Instead the Bible is a compilation of religious and moral stories passed down many generations (written long after the stories were first created). To take them out of that religious and moral concept turns the Bible into something it really isn't meant to be.