Page 16 - ADAM IN GENESIS

to give light to our planet as opposed to the divine light of God Himself that will supply
light in the New Creation (Rev. 21:23; 22:5).
The phrase and God saw that the * was good is repeated on all of the Creation Workdays
except Day 2 and is emphasized on Day 6 as very good. The LXX has added the phrase
kai eiden ho theos hoti kalon (and God saw that it was good) to verse 8 in an attempt to
parallel the other Creation Days, but the phrase is not found in the Hebrew text. We will
elaborate more on this later, but it may be fair to assume there was something about the
raqiya (expanse) on Day 2 that was not yet good at that time but it certainly was by
Creation Day 6.
Next God separated (Heb. badal) the light from the darkness. The Hebrew word badal
carries the connotation of being distinct from. So there is enough light penetrating the
early cloud cover to be distinct from the darkness. This adds further proof of the nature of
the light. If God is present everywhere, and John says that in Him there is no darkness
(1John 1:5), then there can be no separation between light and darkness because there is
no room for true darkness. Our final proof is in verse 5 when God called the light Day,
and the darkness He called Night. The use of these terms is meant to make the listener
think of the everyday cycle of daylight and nighttime. When the listener experiences
light, it is during the day. Likewise when he experiences darkness, it is during the night.
The words yom (day) and laylah (night) are common in the OT occurring 2268 and 233
times respectively. No other word in the Creation account is so hotly debated than is the
word yom. Does the word demand a 24-hour interpretation or can it mean a longer period
of time? We will look further into this debate shortly, but for now it will suffice to say the
meaning in Gen. 1:5a is the portion of time that the observer is in the light whereas the
night is the time when he is in darkness.
This observation from the text adds further evidence as to the position of our observer
(here God). If God were telling this account from a perspective in space, there would be
no day/night experience. Day and night are caused by the rotation of the earth so the only
place an observer can experience both is at some place here on earth. If the light is
coming from the radiant glory of the omnipresent God, we have already noted that there
would be no day/night experience; only day. However if the light is natural, say from the
sun, an earth-based observer would experience them both much the way we do today. I
believe it is fair to assume the Spirit of God is working on Creation Day 1 from a position
on earth and sees both the light of day and the darkness of night as the earth rotates along
its axis.
We come next to the refrain and there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
This refrain is echoed on all of the successive Creation Workdays but is significantly
absent on Creation Day 7. Collins has gone to great lengths on the proper translation of
this refrain (p. 55-56). The duplication of the wayyiqtol verb wayehiy (and there was)
demands a duplicate translation which the KJV and NKJV have ignored. If we take the
wayyiqtol as showing broadly sequential actions, as it should, then we have an evening
followed by a morning. The Hebrew words are erev and voqer and are used 134 and 239
times respectively. An ancient Israelite listener would have the same experience with
these terms as we do today since the earth has been rotating the same for the past 3500
years to be certain. Let us explore the usage a bit further to see if these words are to be
taken as literal evenings and mornings.