Source: King James Hebrew-Greek KeyWord Study Bible, AMG Publishers 1991
"The day age theory claims that the word yom (3117), which is the Hebrew word for "day," is used to refer to periods of indefinate length, not to literal days. While this is a viable meaning of the word (Leviticus 14:2, 9, 10) it is...."
Enough said on that note.
“With God one day is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day.”
Whether the verse deals with patience, or not, it's clearly a statement on how God sees time, and uses his time, quite differently from man.
The point is, "the sun" (upon which man establishes _his_ measurement of time), did not exist until Day #4 of the Genesis account. Therefore, by all reasonable interpretations, Genesis is not and can not be speaking in terms of "literal 24 hour days" or a six day creation.
With that thought in mind, I'll refer to Professor Louis Agassiz, an esteemed Paleontologist, with equal credentials (if not more so), intensive research, publication and innovative theories such as the glacial epoch (The Ice Age), in which Agassiz concluded in contrast to Darwin,
"...In opposition to the Darwinian theory of evolution, Agassiz held to 'epochs of creation'." (See footer, from article on Professor Louis Agassiz, Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia, ©1950)
Word Study of Strong's Concordance, for Hebrew term "day" #3117
Strongs Concordance, reveals the term day or yom, #3117, at the back of the Concordance, provides a definition for the context of this elusive term...
Genesis leaves no doubt to the question whether or not Adam died "the day he ate thereof".
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."But Adam ate of the fruit, and did not die in the same 24 hour "day". On the contrary,
Genesis 2:17
"And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died."
Genesis 5:5
Atheists have often mocked the verse, claiming that Adam did not die in "the same day," therefore Atheists argue, God lied and the serpent spoke the truth,
"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die..."But they did eventually die.
Genesis 3:4
It's safe to deduce from this usage alone, the Hebrew word "Yom" does not imply a 24 hour day. It is used in a context to describe an indefinate length of time. Otherwise, had "yom" implied a strict 24 hour time period, then, the Atheists got it right and God lied to Adam, because no, Adam did not die the same day. On this note, I conclude without any doubt, the term "Day" or "Yom" is used to imply a lengthy, indefinate period of time.
Absurdity? Genes alluded to in Genesis that allow people to live forever?
"And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died."
Genesis 5:5
Atheists say it is "absurd" altogether... living 930 years. But Atheists would have said that Brooke Greenberg was absurd, too.. and impossible, until they saw it for themselves, and heard it from medical science. The mystery of how a human does not age at a normal, accelerated rate mystifies the medical communty. In fact, Brooke stopped maturing altogether, at age 4.
How does a baby remain a baby, forever?
16 year old baby - she doesn't age
Brooke Greenberg - An eternal baby?? - 2005
The fact remains, a yom may merely be a yom -- In other words, that time period we break up into 24 hours. In Day 1, God created day and night. That may have well been with a specific amount of time in mind, in order to bestow "days" upon his children. And then, the creation of the sun and moon, the stars and galaxies, would have been made to accommodate that original (and lasting) sense of "day."
ReplyDeleteI have always found it perplexing that believers in God could somehow doubt that He could have designed and put in place 13.9 billion years of universe in one 24-hour period. How can we doubt Him anything? How does anything unsettling to our poor powers to add and detract mean anything -- except that we need to try a little harder to understand?
Do the eons of the universe, or the evolving fish, flora and beasts of our planet, really matter much -- as in much more than a day each of God's time -- compared to the lives and living that occur upon God first connecting with man -- Adam?
No, I place no such limits upon God -- nor upon His word that things really start to count -- as in one precious day filling but one precious day -- when He begins His covenant with those made in His image.