The book of Genesis begins with "In the beginning" whereby the universe is being created at the very beginning, out of nothing. From the an empty space and void to something. How marvelous is God's creation, eh? Then, God began to put things in from Day 1 till Day 6, He created the animals and mankind. Day 7, He rested.
Do you think we can take each description from Day 1 to Day 7 literally or figuratively? Or, they are merely symbol of seven days in a faith statement, implying progressive creativity and careful order? Or, in fact God created all these in a day and for us to grasp it, it's separated into 6 days of creation?
What do you think?
we should take it literally in terms of what it ACTUALLY says.
What would anindependent peruser make of Genesis 1?
The first thing thatwould strike him is that on creating the heavens and the earth, theearth was waste and empty. Nothing had been formed or fashioned. Allwas dark. There was no form of light. All was covered with water.Thus when God begins to fashion His creation He only had submergedformless matter to work on. There was no sun nor moon. There wasnothing.
The aim of this wouldappear to be in order to bring out that all that is positive withincreation was as a consequence of God's positive action. Without Godupholding it, it would return to being waste and empty. Meanwhile theSpirit of God is hovering over its emptiness like a brooding bird,waiting to act. And we are not told how long this went on for.
Then God acts. He says'let there be light.' What has been negative darkness is flooded withpositive light, (possibly electro-magnetic-waves). No indication isgiven of the source of light apart from the word of God. Then Hedivides the light from the darkness. Light and darkness areseparated. Light, and periods of light, sustained by God, are calledYOM. Darkness, and periods of darkness are called CHOSHEK. Presumablyfrom now on periods of God-provided light are seen as separate fromperiods of darkness. Thus 'evening' comes, and following it thenight. Which will be followed by another yom. It should be noted thatthere was no previous evening. Before the light came all had beenblackness, negative darkness. Thus when the reader reads, 'and therewas evening and there was morning one yom' he naturally thinks of theevening that follows the period of light. The 'morning' would havepreceded it. The reason evening is mentioned first is in order todemonstrate the separation of light from darkness which will resultin a second yom. The morning stresses that it had a beginning. Thereader notes that it is God-provided light not limited by physicalfactors. From now on all activity will be to do with earth and itssurrounds and as seen on earth.
To a people who sawtime as fluid, with neither 'year' nor 'moon period' being a fixedlength of time, there would be no indication how long the period oflight (yom) was. It would depend on God's will. And being Godinspired light there was no limit to it apart from what He set.
Unlike us with our timemeasuring equipment even the ordinary 'days' of those times would notall have been seen as the same length (even approximately). How oftenwe say 'the day flashed by' or 'its been a long day' and it seemslike it even though WE know it is of the same length. They did nothave measurers of time. To them 'days' would have been seen as longor short without any fixity as to time. They had nothing to tell themotherwise.
They would thus simplyhave seen this first yom (period of light) as any length of time Godpleased, as a period of time whether long or short. They would haveno fixations like us. They probably would not even have speculated onit.
Evening would result innight, and then in the morning would commence the second yom (periodof light) during which God could work. And this would go on until theevening. During this period God made the atmosphere, forming cloudsabove, and waters below. 'And the evening (ending) and the morning(beginning) was of the second period of light (yom).' Again theywould see God taking as long as He wanted to. The light wasGod-provided and would last as long as He wanted.
Again evening wouldintroduce night and that would be followed by 'morning' which wouldintroduce another period of light during which God could work. Thuswould begin yom 3. This was a very busy period. During it the landappeared out of the water. And then God made and caused to grow allmanner of vegetation and plants up to the point where they producedseeds. The ancients would know all about growing vegetation andplants. They would know how long it took, in some cases more than inothers. And they would therefore know that this yom took up aconsiderable period of time. This would cause them no problem. It wasGod's working day and the One Who provided the light could make itlast as long as He wanted. There is no hint that the growth processwas miraculously increased or that the trees were created as theywere. The emphasis is on them growing. It is artificial to suggestthat they grew super-rapidly. It appear to suggest that it began asit would go on, as the seed produced further vegetation.
So it is clear that upto this point 'yom' was of no specific length of time. Indeed thiswill be emphasised on the fourth yom.
