Genesis 2:4-5
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KJV
4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
Verse 4 is cited by Jacaf at The Earth 6000 years old as "indicat[ing] that the earth was created in the 6 days of creation, which we know to be about 6000 years ago"
It is claimed that this verse shows that a "day" in Genesis may not be a literal day of twenty-four hours. Bro Ron Abel suggests the following arguments in Wrested Scriptures to make the contrary case:
1. "Day" in scripture is sometimes used to represent an unspecified length of time.[a]The Hebrew word "yom" translated "day" in this passage is translated "time elsewhere. (e.g., Gen. 4:3; 26:8; 38:12). But when second, third, etc., occur as they do in Genesis 1, the word refers to a literal day, defined in Genesis by the "evening and the morning".
- [a] For example, "the day of temptation" (Psa. 95:8), "the day of adversity" (Prov. 24:10), "the day of vengeance" (Isa. 61:2), but when Scripture refers to "the fifteenth day of the same month" (Lev. 23:6), the seven days of Unleavened Bread, or the fifty days until Pentecost, the word "day" can mean only a 24 hour period.
2. As used in Genesis 2, "yom" covers the whole period when the LORD God "made the earth and the heavens". (Gen. 2:4). Failure to distinguish between these two uses of "day" have led to faulty interpretations of Genesis 1. The days of Genesis 1 are determined by light and darkness, evening and morning.
Test these arguments for yourself against the Scriptures cited at Non-literal days in the Bible.
