Young Earth vs. Old Earth, Part 2 – A 24 Hour Day or Something Else?

We continue with John Lennox’s discussion of the Young Earth/Old Earth Controversy at Rice University.  Where subheadings have been inserted, they are provided for the reader’s convenience.

“But now let’s come to the days.  I am amazed, frankly, that people don’t read this text.”

Day 1

“What’s the first day mentioned in Genesis 1?  ‘And God called the light day and the darkness He called night.’  How long is that day?  It certainly was not 24 hours.  At the equator, how many hours is it?  Yes, twelve.

So where does this insistence come from that every time the Bible uses the word ‘day’ it’s 24 hours, when the very first one isn’t?”

Day 2

“Now let’s look at the second one, if you will.  ‘And there was evening and morning’ is the Hebrew way of saying a normal 24 hour day.  So let it stand.  That’s the second meaning of ‘day’.”

Day 7

“Now, we come to the third meaning of ‘day’.  ‘And God rested on the seventh day.’  Have you noticed there’s no formula?  Why is that? 

Right from the early centuries of Christianity and Jewish interpreters understood that to mean that God is still resting from creating.  When did God start creating again?  He never did.  So the Shabbath day, the seventh day, is still going on.  That’s a pretty long day, isn’t it?  And it’s in the text.

So that’s three meanings for the word ‘day’.”

An Indefinite Period

“Now, we come to the fourth one.  There are only 100 words in this text.

Chapter 2, verse 4 of Genesis says, ‘When God created the heavens and the earth…’  That’s what the English translation says.  The Hebrew doesn’t.  It says, ‘In the day God created.’  What day was that, Tuesday or Thursday?  No.  You know as well as I do. 

You’ve heard people say, they often say today for some reason, ‘Back in the day.’  Do you know that expression here?…If I say to you, ‘In my young day at Cambridge you had to be back in your college at 10 o’clock at night’ you would never say, ‘What day was that?’.  Because ‘my young day’ is an indefinite period of time in the past.

So there are four meanings for the same word in a text of 100 words.  What does that tell me?  Be very careful.”

Absence of Definite Article “The”

“But you need to be even more careful, because if you read most English translations they say, ‘The first day, the second day.’  Remember that?  That’s not what the Hebrew says. 

Hebrew has a definite article “ha-”, “ha-yom” [for] “the day”.  It’s not used for the first five.  Isn’t that interesting?…I’ve spoken to professors of Hebrew that never noticed that.

The definite article is used on Day 6 and Day 7.  ‘The sixth day…the seventh day’.  They’re special.  The sixth day God created human beings.  The seventh day He rested.

But actually what it says is, ‘Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5’ or ‘A first day, a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth’.  Now, if you just had that text, what would you deduce logically?

Well, you could say those are the six days of an earth week.  Are they necessarily?  But suppose they were days of the sort that have evenings and mornings. 

Day 1 God creates something.  Day 2 God creates something more.  When is Day 2?  How long is Day 1?  The text doesn’t say.  It’s a creation day.  Day 3?

So, you see, the text, itself, once you begin to think about it, opens up all kinds of possibilities.  So I wouldn’t be dogmatic about it.”

This series will conclude next week with Part 3 – The Word.

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