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Help with the word "Days"

Siyha

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While the thread already seems to be past this, I should point out that I agree with Mark Kennedy as "day" literally meaning "day" and not unspecificed period of time or era or age or something like that. In its context of numbers and attachment to morning and evening, it is most definately a literal day.

So if you were to think of Genesis 1 as a literal, historic event, then an acurate interpretation would require no more than 1 week's time for the events to take place.
 
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Mallon

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While the thread already seems to be past this, I should point out that I agree with Mark Kennedy as "day" literally meaning "day" and not unspecificed period of time or era or age or something like that. In its context of numbers and attachment to morning and evening, it is most definately a literal day.

So if you were to think of Genesis 1 as a literal, historic event, then an acurate interpretation would require no more than 1 week's time for the events to take place.
I agree. For me, the question isn't whether day was meant literally, but whether it was meant historically.
 
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juvenissun

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While the thread already seems to be past this, I should point out that I agree with Mark Kennedy as "day" literally meaning "day" and not unspecificed period of time or era or age or something like that. In its context of numbers and attachment to morning and evening, it is most definately a literal day.

So if you were to think of Genesis 1 as a literal, historic event, then an acurate interpretation would require no more than 1 week's time for the events to take place.

Literal meaning of morning: more light shows up. So, the evening would be the light is partially or totally covered or receded. Repeated morning and evening literally means: cycles.

So, there could be A LOT of other factors involved in the whole system, such as the source of light, the time duration of a cycle, the degree and the mechanism of lightening and darkening, etc. . Our normal understanding of day/night is only a special case, not a general case.
 
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Papias

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Juvi, that isn't the case. When it gets light (like when a heavy afternoon thunderstorm suddenly clears), no one calls it "morning". The dictionary says:
**********************************
morn·ing

   https://secure.reference.com/sso/register_pop.html?source=favorites/ˈmɔr
thinsp.png
nɪŋ
/ Show Spelled[mawr-ning] Show IPA
–noun 1. the first part or period of the day, extending from dawn, or from midnight, to noon.

2. the beginning of day; dawn: Morning is almost here.
************************************************

The regular word "Day" is used, which is not writing out some longer time period. Genesis uses "day" as a methaphor, just as if I described a good runner friend of mine by saying "he's a horse". By "horse", I don't mean some other kind of ungulate, I mean "Horse" as a metaphor for a good human long distance runner.

This whole recent conversation is silly, it's like reading the song of solomon where it says "your eyes are doves", and debating whether the word chosen can mean dove or some other kind of animal. That's not the point, the point is that it is a metaphor to mean "a beautiful and darling living thing".

Papias
 
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Siyha

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Literal meaning of morning: more light shows up. So, the evening would be the light is partially or totally covered or receded. Repeated morning and evening literally means: cycles.

So, there could be A LOT of other factors involved in the whole system, such as the source of light, the time duration of a cycle, the degree and the mechanism of lightening and darkening, etc. . Our normal understanding of day/night is only a special case, not a general case.

Actually I just checked some sources and you have a valid point. While I still think that the specific choice of morning and evening to denote the light and darkness implies an actual "day", your interpretation can also be justified.

Here is the entire section on yom in TWOT. Note specifically the area I put in bold (I am posting the entire entry so people can see the whole scope of the word presented in this book. Although its not the most comprehensive Hebrew dictionary, it is a standard resource for quick referencing and generally contains the same basic information as the more exhaustive ones, without the plethora of references and individual special cases).

Yom said:
852 יוֹם (yôm) day, time, year.
Derivative
852a יוֹמָם (yômām) by day.
The ASV and RSV translate yom similarly with the latter frequently representing the sense more accurately (exception: Gen 2:17; 3:5 attest the same Hebrew construction, yet the RSV confuses the reader by rendering them differently).

Our word is the “most important concept of time in the ot by which a point of time as well as a sphere of time can be expressed.” The word is also common in Ugaritic. It can denote: 1. the period of light (as contrasted with the period of darkness), 2. the period of twenty-four hours, 3. a general vague “time,” 4. a point of time, 5. a year (in the plural; I Sam 27:7; Ex 13:10, etc.). Especially note the following special meanings: bĕyôm (frequently “when”; bĕ can be replaced by min or ʿad), hayyôm (frequently “today,” or some particular day), bîmê “in the time of,” yĕmê “as long as” (Deut 11:21; Gen 8:22). Akkadian ūmu “day,” is often combined with ina “in,” in the form inūma, enūma to mean “when” (e.g. enūma eliš), exactly as Hebrew bĕyôm. There is no real synonym to our word although compare ʿēt (“time”) and ʿôlām (“eternity”) in some contexts (Ezk 21:25 [H 30]: Num 13:20, etc.). Other Hebrew words sometimes translated “day” are: ʾôr “light,” bōqer (the usual Hebrew word for “morning” the period of light before noon; Jud 19:26), šaḥar (the Northwest Semitic word for “morning-goddess,” see šaḥar, hālal, UT 19: no. 2399; Gen 32:25). Finally, yôm used adverbially (kōl-hayyôm, Job 1:5; Gen 6:5) parallels tāmîd (“continually”) in meaning g)num 4:7). Antonyms of our word are: layĕlâ (Gen 8:22), and ʿereb (Gen 1:5; cf. Dan 8:14). Our word, a common Semitic root (UT 19: no. 1100), and the concept of time surrounding it do not present a unique Hebrew understanding of time (Jenni, THAT I, yôm, “tag”). The root occurs 2355 times.

It is important to note that the daytime was not divided into regular hourly divisions, but according to natural phenomena (Ex 18;13; Gen 43:16; 15:12; 18:1, etc.). The night, however, was divided into three watches (perhaps Lam 2:18; Jud 7:19; Ex 14:24). Furthermore, there is apparently a certain duality in the determination of the beginning and ending of the day with the former being sometimes evening (Est 4:16; Dan 8:14), and sometimes morning (Deut 28:66–67: AI, I, pp. 180ff.).

“Day” is surrounded by many theological themes related to God’s sovereignty. God, being eternal, antedates (Isa 43:13; Dan 7:9) and transcends time (Ps 90:4). Time (“days”) was created by God (Gen 1) and is under his control (Ps 74:16). Especially, note Joshua’s miraculous “day” (SOTI, p. 259 ff.). Man is called to recognize this sovereignty by conforming life to the time divisions established by God (Ex 20:11; 31:17, etc.). God assured the regularity of time (Gen 8:22), but this does not mean that regularity is a law to which God is subject. Indeed, it will someday be divinely suspended (Zech 14:7). Like cosmological and terrestrial time man’s lifespan is ordered (Ps 90:10), determined (Ps 139:16), and controlled (Deut 30:20; Ps 55:23 [H 24]); 91:16; Isa 38:5) by God. The Bible gives repeated indications of God’s interest in and concern for time and its events (Gen 26:33; 24:55). Moreover, a unique (to the ancient world) and ever-present philosophy of history is exhibited therein.
[The myth makers of the Ancient Near East did not conceive of time in terms of a horizontal, linear ordering of events reaching from a historical beginning to a final consummation of all things. Rather, they regarded time as cyclical, the annual reordering and revitalizing of the universe. Their creation myths were recited at annual New Year’s festivals as magical words to accompany a magical ritual in order to reac-tualize the original cosmology, the passage from chaos to cosmos. In mythopoeic thought time has no significance and history no meaning.

But Genesis 1 betrays a totally different notion about time. Here time is conceived as linear and events occur successively within it. Moreover, from the biblical viewpoint man’s behavior in the present determines his state in the future. Time is the defined arena in which it will be demonstrated that righteousness is rewarded with life and evil is punished with death. Such a viewpoint invests man’s time with the greatest moral value and history serves as an instrument whereby God’s character can be displayed B.K.W.]

Special notice should also be given to the theological significance of several constructions and phrases. yôm ʾăšer “the day when” is used preponderantly to introduce events with particular importance in the history of salvation (Deut 4:32; Num 15:23, etc.; see also the use with šā). The period “forty days and forty nights” frequently signifies a time of reformation (Gen 7:4; Ex 16:35; 24:18) and/or trial (Jon 3:4). The word hayyôm sometimes signifies a redemptive time (if not moment) when repentance is divinely summoned (Ps 95:7), salvation divinely bestowed (Ps 118:24), or adoption divinely effected (Ps 2:7). For the meaning of the phrase “days of old,” see qādam. One of the most debated occurrences of yôm is its use in reference to creation. The difficulties in exegesis there are complicated by many factors (see E. J. Young, Studies in Genesis One, Presbyterian and Reformed, 1964, pp. 43ff.). Like Young, this writer believes the days of Gen 1 to be intentionally patterned, chronological, of indeterminable length, initiated with 1:1, intended to show step-by-step how God “changed the uninhabitable and unformed earth of verse two into the well-ordered world of verse thirty-two,” and “straight-forward. trustworthy history” (ibid., p. 103ff.). Another much debated phrase is the “day of the Lord.” It can be used eschatalogically or noneschatalogically. It is a day of judgment and/or blessing (Isa 2). Hence, the eschatalogical meaning embraced by this idea entails all of prophetic eschatology (George A. Gay, “Day”, Baker Dictionary of Theology, p. 156; Jenni, op.cit., loc. cit.; K. D. Schunck, “Der Tag Jahwehs,” VT 14:319–30). Similar expressions are bayyôm hahûʾ “in that day” which can refer to ordinary expected events (Isa 21:6) or can be eschatological and ʾaḥărît hayyāmîm which can refer to events in the general future (Deut 31:29) or to the eschaton (Harris, R. L., “The Last Days in the Bible and Qumran,” in Jesus of Nazareth Savior and Lord, C. F. H. Henry, ed., Eerdmans (1966)).
יוֹמָם (yômām). By day. This adverb modifies the verbal activity by specifying that it occurred while it was yet light. Its antonyms are layĕlâ (Ex 13:21) and bāʿereb (Ezk 12:3–4). Our word occurs fifty-one times.
Bibliography: TDNT, II, pp. 943–48. THAT, I, pp. 707–26.


Harris, R. L., Harris, R. L., Archer, G. L., & Waltke, B. K. (1999). Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed.) (370–371). Chicago: Moody Press.
 
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juvenissun

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Actually I just checked some sources and you have a valid point. While I still think that the specific choice of morning and evening to denote the light and darkness implies an actual "day", your interpretation can also be justified.

Here is the entire section on yom in TWOT. Note specifically the area I put in bold (I am posting the entire entry so people can see the whole scope of the word presented in this book. Although its not the most comprehensive Hebrew dictionary, it is a standard resource for quick referencing and generally contains the same basic information as the more exhaustive ones, without the plethora of references and individual special cases).

What I don't understand is how (or why) would the Hebrew use the same word to represent both day and year? Would it be much better to use two words?
 
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Willtor

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What I don't understand is how (or why) would the Hebrew use the same word to represent both day and year? Would it be much better to use two words?

All languages are full of strange quirks -- and all outsiders point to each case and say, "that's a strange quirk!" But it seems perfectly natural to native-speakers. In English, we have many such cases. It allows poets and clever people to play with the language.

But each language has its own, different set of quirks.
 
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ivebeenshown

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I agree. For me, the question isn't whether day was meant literally, but whether it was meant historically.

Cool! Well, if you choose to view Genesis 1 as meaning literal 24-hour days, and Genesis 2 as chronologically contradictory, and you believe what the New Testament says about Adam being the historic first man and a true ancestor of Christ, you have two options (at least as far as I can tell):

Adam began his 930-year life from the sixth day of the universe's existence, or...

God created the universe and the earth in one undefined 'day' or period of time but then created Adam, beginning his 930-year life, and after creating Adam, created all of the other lifeforms of earth including all vegetation.

I believe Genesis 2 matches Genesis 1 due to pluperfects so I pick the first one. But I don't know what you think.
 
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juvenissun

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All languages are full of strange quirks -- and all outsiders point to each case and say, "that's a strange quirk!" But it seems perfectly natural to native-speakers. In English, we have many such cases. It allows poets and clever people to play with the language.

But each language has its own, different set of quirks.

That is true. But I like to know the particular reason of using the same word for both day and year. Why not also use it for month?

Ohh... Is that because of the sun? Month is related to the moon.
But, if so, ancient Hebrews (those who created the language) must have known that the earth orbits the sun.
 
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shernren

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Cool! Well, if you choose to view Genesis 1 as meaning literal 24-hour days ...

What he means to say is that within the context of the story the days are 24-hour periods of time, but that the story itself needs to be set in its own wider context.

As an example, the bears in Goldilocks are actual (if talking) ursine mammals, and the porridge they serve Goldilocks is an actual rice or oat soup. It is not a story about volatile markets ("bear runs") causing investors to make questionable decisions ("hot porridge"); but interpreting Goldilocks as being about talking bears does not mean that I believe that I'll be served a bowl of steaming stew by a talking bear any time in the future.

As another example (and my personal favorite), the Twelve Days of Christmas are 24-hour days; they do not represent, for example, the twelve separate dynasties of England or anything like that. But just because they mean 24-hour periods of time does not mean that I actually believe that any suitor actually gave such an extravagant and ludicrous series of gifts to his lover over a fortnight leading up to Christmas.

As it is, I think the text itself gives enough hints that the days are not what they seem.

Evidence 1: Morning and evening before the creation of the sun and moon; surely the Hebrews even if they were geocentric flat-earthers (and they may not have been) would at least have the dimmest awareness that morning and evening are related to the relative motion of the sun in the sky.

Evidence 2: Why does the seventh day have neither morning nor evening? (Answer: because it has lasted at least seven thousand years. ;) )
 
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Siyha

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What I don't understand is how (or why) would the Hebrew use the same word to represent both day and year? Would it be much better to use two words?

Hebrew does have a word for year, Shanah (long a's) (or it could be Sanah. I forget whether it starts with sin or shin.)

in the 2284 occurances of Yom, it is only translate into year 32 times (in NASB), and its meaning is a combination of "period of time" and year. Think of it in reference to years as cycles instead of individual years.

For example:

Exodus 13:10: "Therefore you shall keep this ordinance at its apointed time from year (yom) to year (yom)."
 
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ivebeenshown

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What he means to say is that within the context of the story the days are 24-hour periods of time, but that the story itself needs to be set in its own wider context.

You can perceive it that way, but then you have Genesis 2, and if you disregard Genesis 1 as a metaphor or parable or poem, then Genesis 2 would read Adam -> Plants -> Animals. Adam was the Son of God and the first Adam, and Jesus Christ was the Son of God and the last Adam. Adam was the first ancestor of Christ, and Adam is the figure in Genesis 2. Adam lived to be 930 years old.

I think the text itself gives enough hints that the days are not what they seem.

Evidence 1: Morning and evening before the creation of the sun and moon; surely the Hebrews even if they were geocentric flat-earthers (and they may not have been) would at least have the dimmest awareness that morning and evening are related to the relative motion of the sun in the sky.

Evidence 2: Why does the seventh day have neither morning nor evening? (Answer: because it has lasted at least seven thousand years. ;) )

Revelation 21
23And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

The sun is not the only source of light.

The six days / sabbath pattern is the pattern of the God's week cycle. On the sabbath day no work is to be done. God rested the seventh day. However, soon enough he would do work by making clothes for Adam and Eve, and placing cherubim to guard the garden of Eden. The women in the gospels could not even prepare spices on the Sabbath because it would not be resting. God would proceed to make clothes and place cherubim -- two 'errands' -- not to mention all of his following works.

The seventh day is beyond over. It says God rested.

Genesis 2:3
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Exodus 20:11
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
 
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shernren

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You can perceive it that way, but then you have Genesis 2, and if you disregard Genesis 1 as a metaphor or parable or poem, then Genesis 2 would read Adam -> Plants -> Animals. Adam was the Son of God and the first Adam, and Jesus Christ was the Son of God and the last Adam. Adam was the first ancestor of Christ, and Adam is the figure in Genesis 2. Adam lived to be 930 years old.

Ahh, but firstly, treating Genesis 1 as a metaphor or a parable or a poem does not mean I am "disregarding" it. Jesus gave the account of a man whose rebellious son asked for his inheritance; you consider that a parable, but that hardly means you are disregarding Jesus' words. In fact, if someone tells a parable or an expression, and you take it literally, you are in fact disregarding that person's intent BY taking it literally.

If someone says (excuse the vulgarity - it proves the point) "F*** you", and you reply "No, I really wouldn't want to have sex with you", you are taking that person's words literally, but you are disregarding that person's meaning. You are taking him literally, but you are not taking him seriously, and you are setting yourself up for a very painful punch to the face.

As for your next statements, let's look at them carefully. Firstly, just what do you mean when you say Adam is the son of God? Surely you don't mean that God performs sexual reproduction with ... something else (let's not even go there), and that Adam is the result of that procreation. And yet that is what the word "son" literally means. And what do you mean when you say Jesus is the son of God? Claiming that he is somehow a descendant of God is now a double heresy (against the Father, because He does not procreate, and against the Son, because He is eternally pre-existent). And yet, again, that is what the word "son" literally means.

What do you mean when you say that Jesus is the second Adam? What could it possibly mean for there to be a "second" of any unique human being, anyway? Jesus was not formed out of the clay, nor was He formed fully mature, nor did He name the animals, nor was He ever put to sleep and had a woman made out of His side. He did practically nothing Adam did other than being born perfect and taking on federal headship of the redeemed human race - a concept that, by the by, radically reworks the creationist interpretation of Romans 5:12-21 if we are to take Paul's own words seriously. So Jesus "the second Adam" did practically nothing that the first Adam did except represent the human race, and even then He made not a single mistake unlike Adam - so Jesus cannot be considered the second Adam literally.

Do you see the problem in your position? The first sentence of your paragraph implores me to take Genesis 1 literally. The rest of your paragraph consists of Bible quotations that form heresy of the highest order if taken literally (except for the last line - and the gospel would not be any different if Adam had lived to be 929 or 931 years old). I think you demonstrate my point quite nicely.

Revelation 21
23And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

The sun is not the only source of light.

But in that eternal city, "its gates will never be shut by day-and there will be no night there." (Rev 21:25, ESV) The sun is not the only source of light, but it does provide our definition of morning or evening. And if even this needed to be backed up from the Bible:
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 ... (Gen 1:14, ESV)
So the job of the heavenly bodies is to separate the day from the night, or in other words to bring morning (which begins the day) and evening (which begins the night).

So, what kind of morning or evening is not governed by the sun? Yet only that kind of morning or evening could have existed before the sun was created. And if that morning or evening is not governed by the sun, just what exactly compels the duration of that day to be twenty-four hours, and not twenty-five or twenty-three or whatever it feels like being?

The six days / sabbath pattern is the pattern of the God's week cycle. On the sabbath day no work is to be done. God rested the seventh day. However, soon enough he would do work by making clothes for Adam and Eve, and placing cherubim to guard the garden of Eden. The women in the gospels could not even prepare spices on the Sabbath because it would not be resting. God would proceed to make clothes and place cherubim -- two 'errands' -- not to mention all of his following works.

The seventh day is beyond over. It says God rested.

Genesis 2:3
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Exodus 20:11
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

And yet:

For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” (Heb 4:4, ESV)

If God is not resting now, how can we who have believed possibly enter that rest? Even God cannot make us enter something that does not exist.
 
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juvenissun

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Hebrew does have a word for year, Shanah (long a's) (or it could be Sanah. I forget whether it starts with sin or shin.)

in the 2284 occurances of Yom, it is only translate into year 32 times (in NASB), and its meaning is a combination of "period of time" and year. Think of it in reference to years as cycles instead of individual years.

For example:

Exodus 13:10: "Therefore you shall keep this ordinance at its apointed time from year (yom) to year (yom)."

OK, thanks.
 
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gluadys

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As another example (and my personal favorite), the Twelve Days of Christmas are 24-hour days; they do not represent, for example, the twelve separate dynasties of England or anything like that. But just because they mean 24-hour periods of time does not mean that I actually believe that any suitor actually gave such an extravagant and ludicrous series of gifts to his lover over a fortnight leading up to Christmas.

Just some more notes on the 12 days of Christmas. Yes, they are days, but not the 12 days leading up to Christmas. Christmas Day is the 1st day of Christmas and the 12 days are the days of the Christmas season in the liturgical calendar i.e. the days from Christmas to Epiphany, which used to be kept as a nearly 2-week long festivity. Shakespeare's play "Twelfth Night" gets its name from being written for the festivity on the last (12th) night of the Christmas Season. (The time leading up to Christmas is Advent which ends at midnight December 24).

And while the days are days, the gifts are symbolic. The song dates to the early days of Protestant rule in England when Catholicism was suppressed. It is a secret Catholic catechism to teach children in Catholic homes the basics of the faith. So the partridge in the pear tree = Christ, two turtle-doves=two testaments, three French hens=trinity, etc.
 
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Mallon

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What he means to say is that within the context of the story the days are 24-hour periods of time, but that the story itself needs to be set in its own wider context.
Thanks, shern. That's precisely what I mean.

As it is, I think the text itself gives enough hints that the days are not what they seem.

Evidence 1: Morning and evening before the creation of the sun and moon; surely the Hebrews even if they were geocentric flat-earthers (and they may not have been) would at least have the dimmest awareness that morning and evening are related to the relative motion of the sun in the sky.

Evidence 2: Why does the seventh day have neither morning nor evening? (Answer: because it has lasted at least seven thousand years. ;) )
I think the framework interpretation takes care of some of those issues, although Day 7 is still a tricky point for me.
 
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ivebeenshown

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Long post

A lot of that is addressing a literal interpretation of Genesis 1, I get it. I am ware of the prevalent view of Genesis 1 here. I am saying that even if you disregard a literal interpretation of Genesis 1, Genesis 2 is a historic account of Adam and his wife -- and there are two ways to read verses 8 and 19. One way agrees with Genesis 1 and the other does not.

Here is every single occurrence of the phrase "these are the generations of"... Genesis 2 is one of these eleven occurrences. Each time this phrase is used it denotes a historic account.

Genesis 2
4These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Genesis 6:9
These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Genesis 10:1
Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.

Genesis 11:10
These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood:

Genesis 11:27
Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.

Genesis 25:12
Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bare unto Abraham:

Genesis 25:19
And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham begat Isaac:

Genesis 36:1
Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom.

Genesis 36:9
And these are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in mount Seir:

Genesis 37:2
These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

Ruth 4:18
Now these are the generations of Pharez: Pharez begat Hezron,
 
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