What is the meaning of "day" in Genesis 1?
There is much debate about the meaning of "day" in the Bible when it refers to the days of creation. This is happening in order to synchronize the theory that the earth is billions of years old and then it took millions of years for evolution. And while it may be convenient to attempt to twist the scripture, I find it unnecessary.
First, let's look at the "long day" argument. The idea that the "days" in Genesis were not really 24-hour periods.
a. Since the sun isn't created until day four, there is no way to delineate the first three days of creation. They could be millions of years.
b. Jesus says in 2 Peter 3:8 that with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day. God is not confined by time and could have taken as long as he wanted.
c. A day can mean an indefinite period of time like the "day of the Lord." or a day can also refer to a period of history like "back in my day..." Perhaps one of these is used in the Genesis account.
My response to each of these points is below:
a. It is true that the sun, moon, and stars aren't created until the fourth day, however, at the conclusion of each day God states that there was "evening" and there was "morning" delineating a 24-hour day with traditional Jewish markings of beginning in the evening and going until the next morning to define the day.
b. Yes, the Lord is not confined by time, nor space, nor matter. But the context of this verse refers to the second coming of Jesus Christ. There is no correlation between the definition of a "day" nor connection to the Genesis account.
c. Yes, the English word "day" can be taken to mean longer than a 24-hour period. However, as we're about to see the Hebrew word "yom" translated "day" in our English Bibles is not that liberal in usage.
The days of creation were 24 hour periods of time. And here's why.
- Each of the days is delineated by the terms "evening" and "morning." The Jewish day began in the evening and lasted 24 hours until the morning had passed and evening came again. If each of the days of creation were not 24 hours, God would not have stated this with each one of them.
- God refers back to the days of creation while giving the ten commandments in Exodus 20:11 when He says, "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day." There is no reason to think Moses is not referring to a literal day.
- Finally, the Hebrew word "yom" which means "day" in English is used 359 times in Scripture and always refers to an ordinary day.
It seems reasonable that in the Genesis creation account each day refers to a 24-hour period of time. If we chose to believe otherwise, we would also need to deal with the issue of death and decay before the fall in Genesis 3 when sin and death entered the world according to the Bible. This opens up a whole other topic of discussion.
