What does the word 'day' mean in Genesis?

[Jerry Smith]

Originally posted by LouisBooth
"how come when God creates birds, people and wild animals in Genesis, he only gives them permission to eat various types of plants? "

Because it implies death, which didn't exsist until the fall.

uh, plants don't die when you eat them? hmmm....

 

[LouisBooth]

"uh, plants don't die when you eat them? hmmm...."

Fruit man, fruit Great catch though! Haven't seen ya around in awhile Jerry, where a been?

 

[Jerry Smith]

Sorry. I thought it was "every green thing," my bad.

I'm a lurker now - 99% of the time. Why wife & kids got tired of the neglect & I got tired of feeling like a you-know-what for neglecting them. I'm trying to learn to post a comment here & there & not follow up every reply...


peace out.

 

[LouisBooth]

"I'm trying to learn to post a comment here & there & not follow up every reply..."

amen! I'm glad you see to your family first. Makes me proud to know you.

"Sorry. I thought it was "every green thing," my bad. "

Not a problem, though I have yet to hear the reply from him.

 

[JohnR7]

Originally posted by TheBear
Does the word 'day' in Genesis mean a literal 24 hours, or could it possibly mean something else?

Please state your reason(s) for your answer.


Thanks,
John

It depends if you figure it as a child or not. If you use sixth grade math or not. Peter tells us that:

2 Peter 3:8  But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Notice that he tells us this equation works both ways. One is as 1000 and 1000 is as one.

According to the Hebrew calander this is year 5700. If you add that to the 7000 years (7 days) of creation you come up with 12,700 years. Now multiply this out into days and you come up with 4,625,975 days. Sense a day is as 1000 years then that would be 4,625,975,000 years. Now run a search on the internet for the age of the earth. Most people say the earth is about 4.55 billion years old.

This is consistant with what Peter says. Using Bible days and Bible years. 

In the same way, the Bible says man was created on the fifth day. So if you subtract the first five days from 12,700 you come up with 7,700. Multiply this times 364.25 days in a year and you come up with 2,804,725. This is consistant with what most believe to be the number of years man has lived.

The reason for this is the universe is expanding at a consistant rate. But the distance it is expanding from itself doubles at a half rate. Day one was 8 billion years, day two was 4 billion years and so forth. If you add it all up, that makes the universe about 15 billion years old. Even though from our view point only about 12,700 years have passed.

If your looking at the light from the furthest star, it took 15 billion years to get here. But when you travel the speed of light time does not have any effect at all. So for that light, 0 time has passed. Sense time only effect matter and not energy. Matter traveling the speed of light is not effected by time. Also, if you remember E = MC2. There is a direct relationship between matter and energy. But like I said, time only effects matter, not energy.

 

 

[excreationist]

Originally posted by JohnR7
It depends if you figure it as a child or not. If you use sixth grade math or not. Peter tells us that:

2 Peter 3:8  But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Notice that he tells us this equation works both ways. One is as 1000 and 1000 is as one.

Peter was saying that God isn't being slow about returning... even in Peter's day people were being impatient about the second coming! So if a day really can be a billion or more years, I guess the earth may have a long time to wait for Jesus's return!

According to the Hebrew calander this is year 5700. If you add that to the 7000 years (7 days) of creation you come up with 12,700 years. Now multiply this out into days and you come up with 4,625,975 days. Sense a day is as 1000 years then that would be 4,625,975,000 years. Now run a search on the internet for the age of the earth. Most people say the earth is about 4.55 billion years old.

This is consistant with what Peter says. Using Bible days and Bible years.

Peter said one day is a thousand years. And you would only be able to use 7000 years in your working - not 12,700 years... unless you think that each of our present days since creation is really 1000 years.... ?

In the same way, the Bible says man was created on the fifth day.

Mine says the sixth day.

So if you subtract the first five days from 12,700 you come up with 7,700. Multiply this times 364.25 days in a year and you come up with 2,804,725. This is consistant with what most believe to be the number of years man has lived.

This is when the stone-age is meant to have started. Our species only started about 40,000 years ago. 

The reason for this is the universe is expanding at a consistant rate. But the distance it is expanding from itself doubles at a half rate. Day one was 8 billion years, day two was 4 billion years and so forth. If you add it all up, that makes the universe about 15 billion years old. Even though from our view point only about 12,700 years have passed.

Why were the sun, stars and moon created on day 4 but fruit and grain plants created on day 3?

If your looking at the light from the furthest star, it took 15 billion years to get here. But when you travel the speed of light time does not have any effect at all. So for that light, 0 time has passed. Sense time only effect matter and not energy. Matter traveling the speed of light is not effected by time. Also, if you remember E = MC2. There is a direct relationship between matter and energy. But like I said, time only effects matter, not energy.

I don't know what that has to do with it....

 

[Sinai]

Originally posted by excreationist
Sinai:
Are you saying that a clearer statement would be "God made the heavens and earth in six eras and rested on the seventh"?

Well, that would be a clearer statement in the sense that it would probably not be open to as many interpretations. However, that is not necessarily what the Bible says. Genesis uses the Hebrew word yom, which may be translated in any of those ways. If I were to insist that yom has to mean era, then I would be just as guilty of dogmatism as those young earth creationists who insist that yom has to mean only a 24-hour day.

So it would be: (more or less)
God separated the light from the darkness. That was the first era.
God separated the water and the sky. That was the second era.
God separated the land from the water. Then God made grain and fruit trees. That was the third era.
God made the sun and the moon and also the stars. That was the fourth era. etc.

That is one possible interpretation. But please be aware that yom is not the only Hebrew word or phrase used which can have multiple interpretations.

Do you think the first era happened before the second, and the second era happened before the third, etc? If not, why did the Bible specifically call them "the first" and "the second", etc? Why didn't it just say "in one of the eras this happened, and in another (possibly preceeding) era, this happened"?

When the Bible says yom one, second yom, etc., it appears to be stating an order.

If the fourth era happened after the third era, does this mean that you believe that all of the fruit and grain plants were created before the sun, moon and stars?

As I have mentioned before, the Bible's wording can be interpreted several ways. Since, however, you asked for my personal belief as to when the sun, moon and stars were created, I'll tell you: I personally think the most likely time is on the second yom.

The Hebrew hammayim most commonly is translated as water, which is the way the KJV translates it. However, it can also mean a chaotic mixture--and you will find that some of the most respected Jewish biblical scholars (writing 700-1200 years ago, which is well before modern scientific discoveries) believed that chaotic mixture was probably the better meaning of the term as it is used in the first eight verses of Genesis.

The KJV's translation of the Hebrew raqia as firmament is probably not as justifiable, since the more common usage of that term is expanse, though the word has a number of other possible meanings as well.

Thus, the scriptures could be describing the separation of continents and oceans on the second day--but then it appears that God may repeat the action one day later. Or it could be a division between sky and sea. Or it could be the formation of the heavenly expanse or firmament (the stars and solar systems of the Milky Way could be formed at this time), which would have a more cosmic meaning....and that is my personal interpretation--though that might not mean much (You can probably add a dollar to the value of my personal interpretation and get yourself a cup of coffee most places). [Edited to add words "expanse or" in preceding paragraph]

In any event, the Hebrew could support any of these interpretations.

Well I used to be a creationist, but now I'm an atheist. I guess it can be comforting to have an invisible friend by your side and have heaven to look forward to but I don't see why the Christian religion is the true one or that other religions are either.

I sincerely hope you find the answers you were seeking, and that you will eventually find your way back to God....

 

[npetreley]

Originally posted by Sinai
As I have mentioned before, the Bible's wording can be interpreted several ways. Since, however, you asked for my personal belief as to when the sun, moon and stars were created, I'll tell you: I personally think the most likely time is on the second yom.

Yes, but it was written for people who would read it after the sun, moon and stars were created. So when it says, "evening and morning, the first yom" it conveys extra information beyond "yom" to people who could recognize the significance of using that description.

Please don't misunderstand my intention here. I believe they were more likely to be 24-hour days but I'm not dogmatic about it. I just don't agree with your reasoning.

EDIT: After re-reading your post, I can see I misinterpreted what I thought was reasoning on your part. I apologize if I read something into your post that wasn't there, but I left my post above alone for the sake of honesty, in case you or someone else already read it.

 

[LouisBooth]

/me is still waiting for the example of it used as a nonliteral morning or a nonliteral evening