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The subject of creation days has been one of the most
discussed topics in Christendom. There are perhaps four schoolings in
Christendom: Young Earth, Old Earth, Theistic Evolution and Intelligent design.
While Intelligent Design doesn’t take interest in this subject matter[1],
the remaining three schools have much to say about the interpretation of the
creation days.
The Young Earth school, without doubt, firmly hold to
literal interpretation and no compromise. Meanwhile, Old Earth and Theistic
Evolution schools have varieties of diverse views on how one should look into
these creation days. They either hold to literal days, or figurative days. One
of the most prevailing theory known to be the Gap theory tends to explain away
the days as literal days[2]
while Day-Age theory works hard to explain away the days as ages. No matter
what position an individual takes, the debate has been a long history in
Christian timeline!
The days of creation were not necessarily taken literal even
before Darwin’s rise.[3]
Young Earth proponents keep claiming that the compromise began after scientific
exploration and intervention by atheism and paganism. Meanwhile the careful
research finds indeed the opposite result! The history of creation days understood
as metaphorical is as long as the history of Christian church.[4]
It is uncertain how the original audience understood the days. But it is
obviously certain that they didn’t have same questions like we do today![5]
The enigma of creation days doesn’t end even today. Were the
days 24 hours? Might be! It seems unlikely that Moses and Israelites would have
imagined long ages in that pre-scientific era where Ancient near East culture didn’t
even have a view of spherical earth![6]
The narration comprise morning and evening phrases that tends to demonstrate
the understanding of days to be very normal days. Meanwhile, other argue that
Psalms 90 which is also believed to have been written by Moses discusses
evening morning as poetic and metaphorical! While we could accept the nature of
days as 24 hours, it doesn’t seem to be hard for us to accept the ‘usage’ of
days as some sort of framework. The first three days and the later three days
seem to have a striking correlation! They seem to have symmetricity in which
the first three days have places or kingdoms established while the later three
days have rulers or filling of creatures in the respective places being
installed![7]
The days could be literal and even used as metaphorical! The Cosmic temple view
also holds similar stance that the days were literal except for the fact that
it wasn’t about science but merely temple inauguration.[8]
Other theories maybe Mature creation, in which the days are literal but God
established the world in such a way that it seemed to be very old! Some further
but unlikely suggestion includes revelatory days which holds the days were real
but Moses was indeed given information in six real days! Hence, there are many
ways we can even understand the days as literal days except for the certainty
how original audience perceive them!
Could the creation days be longer period of time? The
scholarly works exist for this possibility as well.[9]
The meaning of word Yom is taken into consideration, the narration of some days
that cannot occur in a single day[10],
the absence of evening and morning phrase in the seventh day, the statement
that for Lord one day is as thousand years and scientific cases reinforce the
possibility that the creation days could have been long ages! The Day-Age
theory is one popularized theory that supports the days as long ages. The Gap
theory doesn’t take days as long ages but adds ages of period between 1-3
verses in the first chapter. The relative time theory is however a different
approach which explains away the creation days to be literal days from the
reference point of the expansion of the universe but long period of time from
the reference point of the earth! Other includes intermediate day-age theory
which just adds long ages between each days! Many of these theories are mere
assumptions and argument from silence. Despite the probability that the days
could be longer periods, it is difficult to establish this position from the
scripture itself. The reputed scholars like Walton and Stanhope in this area
also have argued for the likely case that the original audience had most likely
read the passage as normal days. They put their thoughts forward by saying the
ancient people didn’t have our questions and the culture was not the same.
Therefore, we cannot think of letting our modern mindset seek our modern
queries into the ancient scripture. As Walton and Stanhope notes, both Young
and Old Earth proponents have been guilty of reading modern thoughts into the
ancient scripture!
So, did Moses and Israelites understand the creation days as
long ages? The answer seems it is unlikely. Let me give you a quick reminder
that this issue is again different from the issue of Age of the Earth. This
might sound crazy but it’s true. The possibility that Moses and ancient
Israelites understood the creation days as literal days doesn’t conclude a
young earth. It only concludes they had a different culture and questions far
apart from our mindset.
Were the days literal? It seems so! Does that make the earth
or universe very young? Not necessarily! It’s again a non-essential doctrine
where we Christians can have differing views and yet realize it is our God who
created the universe for his glory!
[1] The Age of The Earth, by Dr. Stephen
Meyer, 2010,
accessed August 23, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGFWH6Okgl8.
[2] “Gap Theory Interpretation | Evidence
Unseen,” n.d., accessed August 23, 2024,
https://www.evidenceunseen.com/articles/science-and-scripture/gap-theory-interpretation/.
[3] TOP TEN Biblical Problems for Young Earth
Creationism, 2020,
accessed August 23, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AoLYeFi2ms.
[4] What Ken Ham Misses About Creation, 2023, accessed August 23, 2024,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL9t3O-1E7w.
[5] Dan Kimball and Sean McDowell, How
(Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-Women, Anti-Science,
Pro-Violence, Pro-Slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture
(Zondervan, 2020), 274.
[6] The Cosmology of the Old Testament, 2024, accessed August 23, 2024,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcNeHXOiUMg.
[7] A Biblical Critique of Answers in Genesis, 2018, accessed August 23, 2024,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h33TyJkzwQ.
[8] The Seven Days in Genesis Aren’t about
Science (Subtitulos En Español), 2021, accessed August 23, 2024,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68kxn4M_RUU.
[9] Genesis 1 1 3 Michael Heiser PhD NEW, 2016, accessed August 23, 2024,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diEzuGvDjU0.
[10] Ravi Zacharias and Norman L. Geisler,
eds., Who Made God? And Answers to over 100 Other Tough Questions of Faith
(Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 2003), 93.
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