Yom

[SayaOtonashi]

Does Genesis chapter 1 mean literal 24-hour days?

 

[Assyrian]

Does Genesis chapter 1 mean literal 24-hour days?

Only in the sense that 'day' and 'hour' are day and hour within the parable of the labourers in the vineyard.

But you also find Day Age interpretations in scripture. Psalm 90 and 2Peter 3 read God's days of creation that way.

 

[mark kennedy]

Does Genesis chapter 1 mean literal 24-hour days?

Yes

 

[theFijian]

Only in the sense that 'day' and 'hour' are day and hour within the parable of the labourers in the vineyard.

Aye.

 

[Archie the Preacher]

Does Genesis chapter 1 mean literal 24-hour days?

The word used in the original is 'yom', which can be used in several senses.

It can mean a 'day', as in a twenty-four hour period.
It can mean daytime, the period of light in a twenty-four hour period.
It can mean a specific 'era', as in the day of (King) David.
It can mean the working day, or the journey of one day.
Used in plural form, it can mean a life time - all one's days.
It can mean a year, or it can mean continually.

Young Earth Creationists insist the use in Chapter One of Genesis means a twenty-four hour period and nothing else. If it doesn't, their theory falls apart. Traditionally, this is accepted as the meaning; the ancient Jewish people thought so.

Those who accept God Creating the Universe using His own laws tend to think of 'yom' as an era; a non-specific, but longer, time period. Of course, limiting the meaning to a twenty-four hour period wipes out their theory. (In the spirit of transparency, I belong to this camp.)

There are arguments for both beliefs.

There may be others who believe a third (or fourth or nineteen) alternative. I am not aware of them.

 

[Papias]

Archie wrote:

There may be others who believe a third (or fourth or nineteen) alternative. I am not aware of them.

Augustine, among other early Christians, rejected the idea that this case of yom meant 24 hour days.

Unlike other issues (like geocentrism, where the traditional view was geocentrism until the 15th century), the meaning of yom in Genesis has been an open question through Christian history.

Papias

 

[Archie the Preacher]

Augustine, among other early Christians, rejected the idea that this case of yom meant 24 hour days.

I recall reading or talking with a traditional (not sure if fully Orthodox) Rabbi and the impression I got from him was the traditional Jewish scholars leaned toward a twenty-four hour day. I suppose I could have misunderstood.

Unlike other issues (like geocentrism, where the traditional view was geocentrism until the 15th century), the meaning of yom in Genesis has been an open question through Christian history.

That doesn't really surprise me. It seems to have been the default position for the last hundred or so years - as far as I can tell.

 

[KEPLER]

Does Genesis chapter 1 mean literal 24-hour days?

Absent the Sun (which was not created until day 4), how would we know if the first three days are 24 hours?

So, my answer is no.

K

 

[yeshuasavedme]

Does Genesis chapter 1 mean literal 24-hour days?

Yes. the seven day week of 24 hour days began in Genesis 1. The evening and the morning are "one/echad Day"
God has other cycles measuring time, like the 700 year "week" in Enoch, and the 49 year period of seven, seven week periods, in Leviticus, with the 50th the Jubilee the Sabbath, and the week of seven millennial days, with the seventh a Sabbath, coming up.

God's days are not exactly 24 hours, but 18 "parts", as the Enochian calendar shows and as is also kept in Revelation, though Jesus acknowledged the 24 hour day that man keeps.

 

[gluadys]

Does Genesis chapter 1 mean literal 24-hour days?

Whether the term "day" in Genesis 1 is to be interpreted literally is much less important than whether it is to be interpreted historically. "Literal" does not mean "historical" "actual" or "factual".

"Day" can be intended as both literal and literary.

Literal because the author intends it to be understood in its most common meaning, i.e. a single day (which we measure as 24 hours, whether the author did or not). "Most common meaning" is the basic definition of "literal".

Literary because it is part of a story that overall is not intended to describe an event as a historian, journalist or scientist would, but as a story-teller does. A literal day is literary when the day is part of the story, but not an identifiable day on a calendar.

 

[KEPLER]

Yes. the seven day week of 24 hour days began in Genesis 1. The evening and the morning are "one/echad Day"
God has other cycles measuring time, like the 700 year "week" in Enoch, and the 49 year period of seven, seven week periods, in Leviticus, with the 50th the Jubilee the Sabbath, and the week of seven millennial days, with the seventh a Sabbath, coming up.

God's days are not exactly 24 hours, but 18 "parts", as the Enochian calendar shows and as is also kept in Revelation, though Jesus acknowledged the 24 hour day that man keeps.

I find it amusing that you accept a non-Biblical book such as Enoch but reject other non-Biblical sources, such as, oh, science.

Consistency is not your strong point.

 

[yeshuasavedme]

I find it amusing that you accept a non-Biblical book such as Enoch but reject other non-Biblical sources, such as, oh, science.

Consistency is not your strong point.

I "accept" -that is "I read"- science books that interest me, whether they are written by Bible believing men or not: in fact, I posted a link to a "science" book about ancient light sciences, and have posted links to other science books on the geo-centric creation and other things, like the electric universe theory and Tesla's works, and the science of language as God gave it to Adam [http://www.amazon.it/The-Origin-Speeches-Intelligent-Language/dp/0979261805] and many other things....

http://www.christianforums.com/t7817504-60/#post65540220
Your comment is a slander on Enoch which is canon in an "accepted" denomination, and was "Scripture" as in "sacred" to many of the ancient fathers of the Church and to the Essenes of the DSS, to Noah, to Abraham, to Job, to Moses, to David, to Jesus, Jude, James, Paul -and to many others. The science of the movement of the heavenly bodies was shown to Enoch by the angel Uriel, and Enoch wrote it down and I read it.

 

[SayaOtonashi]

Yom is used with numbers and evening and morning and both shows it with length time longer than 24 hours. Also God stated 1,000 generation that can't be a way to have be 6,000.

Zechariah 14:7-8 contains the word yom combined with an ordinal (number one, echad), exactly as seen in Genesis 1:5.

 

[AV1611VET]

Does Genesis chapter 1 mean literal 24-hour days?

Yes.

 

[mark kennedy]

Yom is used with numbers and evening and morning and both shows it with length time longer than 24 hours. Also God stated 1,000 generation that can't be a way to have be 6,000.

Zechariah 14:7-8 contains the word yom combined with an ordinal (number one, echad), exactly as seen in Genesis 1:5.

Because that's the Day of the Lord, which is an actual day, just like the ones in Genesis 1.

 

[BobRyan]

Does Genesis chapter 1 mean literal 24-hour days?

Ex 20:11 - six days.

Ex 20:8-11 "six days you shall labor... for in six days the Lord made".

That is legal code -- not myth, not fiction

 

[greentwiga]

One of the best ways is to look at how day is used in the rest of the Bible, as many here have done. Cultures change, and a usage of day in 400 BC is less relevant to a usage of day at a similar time to Gen 1. In Gen 2:4 it says These 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,

Day is used to refer to generations. Also, this account goes on to include the creation of Humans and their descendants. Thus, according to Gen 2:4, one day covers the six days of creation from the creation of the Heavens and earth to the creation of man. One day is the same as six days of creation and also the same as some unknown number of generations.

 

[MKJ]

No, what does it mean to have a day before time, before the earth, before the Sun?

From Clement of Alexandria(c. 150 - 215):
For the creations on the different days followed in a most important succession; so that all things brought into existence might have honour from priority, created together in thought, but not being of equal worth. Nor was the creation of each signified by the voice, inasmuch as the creative work is said to have made them at once. For something must needs have been named first. Wherefore those things were announced first, from which came those that were second, all things being originated together from one essence by one power. For the will of God was one, in one identity. And how could creation take place in time, seeing time was born along with things which exist.

What he is saying here is that the universe was created all at one moment. When Genesis talks about days, it is to describe the hierarchy of creation, not periods of time at all. Inanimate things come first because they are least important, and humans last because they are most important.

The view that everything was created at the same time is held as well by Augustine of Hippo, Hilary of Poitier, and Athanasius of Alexandria. And I think also Origin though I may be misremembering.

Of course this was not the only view found in the early Church, but I think it makes the most sense.

 

[theFijian]

When it says 'day' it most likely means a 24-hour day. However you can't use just one word to determine the genre of a passage, you need the entire passage and its context to do that