Exodus 20:8-11
| See below for a chain of references said to "accept" a literal Genesis |
8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; 11 for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it. (RSV)
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Various Christadelphian readings of verse 11
Understood to require a literal six day creation
This passage is cited here as "accepting" events of early Genesis as literally true. An alternative view is that the creation week of Genesis is itself a reflection of the six-day working week culminating in Sabbath rest. See similar verses and comment here.
| A chain of references said to "accept" a literal Genesis continues here → |
Not understood to require a literal six day creation
- Note: a long list of Christadelphian writers who did/do not read the six days literally is here. C. C. Walker and Ken Gilmore between them span from the 19th to 21st Centuries!
C C Walker
Bro C. C. Walker on a literal reading of verse 11:
It has been thought that the law of the Sabbath necessitates six literal days in creation; but on second thoughts this does not seem conclusive, since the millennium is a “Sabbath” of a thousand years duration, and “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:9).
Ken Gilmore
Christadelphian Evolutionary Creationist blogger Ken Gilmore argues extensively here that use of Exodus 20:11 as a "clobber verse" against Old Earth Creation is based on a misunderstanding of the word translated made.
Others
See list here.
Links
- Discussion of PQRC 6, Creation in six days?
- Exodus 20:11 is cited at User:Jacaf/The Earth 6000 years old
Discussion
- Paul - Other scriptural Mosaic laws extend the concept of a day. The Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee are such examples. These are extrapolations of the concept of a day (a Sabbath) to a whole year of Sabbath days (even though a Sabbath was only 1 day in 7) and also the 7 times 7 Years of Sabbaths in the Year of Jubilee. Thus, even though the Sabbath was only 1 day in 7 it was deemed to be 7 in 7 and also for a whole year (eg see Leviticus 25:8-13). These laws indicate that God's definition of time and specific days, have been, are and will be used as a metaphor to teach spiritual lessons.
