Page 18 - ADAM IN GENESIS

the minds and findings of the scientists. Virtually no one still believes in the geocentric
model because the evidence is overwhelming. This is a clear proof that human minds are
indeed fallible and scientific evidence (as long as it is observable, testable and repeatable)
from outside Scripture can be used to interpret Scripture (as long as it does not contradict
other parts of Scripture). It is also clear proof that early church fathers were not immune
to making faulty interpretations of Scripture when scientific passages were in view.
So as to not fall into these two often snaring traps, we will dig deeper into the meaning of
these Days according to Scripture knowing full well the church history on the subject.
For an outstanding documentation of this, please see Davis Young's outstanding book,
The Bible, Rocks and Time. If the yom are intended to be 24-hour days as we know them
then the text will clearly point in that direction upon closer scrutiny. If they are longer
periods of time, then not only will the textual evidence point that way, but also then the
doors to a possibly ancient earth will be open.

We have already seen the semantic range of yom, that it can mean an ordinary day as we
know it, a long period of time or just the roughly 12-hour portion of daylight. We have
seen that it is used in all senses in the OT regardless of ordinal number modifiers.
However we do recognize that it most commonly refers to a 24-hour day. Some notable
exceptions are later in Gen. 2:4 where it refers to the entire length of time of Creation,
Hosea 6:2 where scholars feel it refers to long periods of time and in Ps. 90:4 where
Moses says that a thousand years are like a day that has passed in Gods sight. There is no
magic in the number 1,000, but simply that time is meaningless to God. If He operates
outside of time, then it would reason that any measurable amount of time here is not felt
the same or viewed the same by God. Moses statement is later echoed by Peter in 2Pet.
3:8. Again in the future there will be a Day of the Lord (e.g. Joel 2:31 and repeated many
times in the prophetic Books) in which the events take place in a period of time longer
than 24 hours. In each of these exceptions, there is a common theme: the days are days
such according to God and His activity. If the majority of the uses of yom point to
24-hour periods, then it is only because they mostly refer to human day-to-day activities.
Our Israelite listener would have known the semantic range of the word and would have
understood its uses and limitations. Given that God is the only character in this account,
we MUST acknowledge the possibility that these are His days and not our days.
An objector will likely turn us to passages like Exodus 20:8-11 where God uses His
creation account to initiate the 7-day work week. The passage says that just as God
worked for six days and rested on the seventh, so to are the Israelites to work for six days
and rest on the seventh. Again, the casual reading in the English Bible seems to give
credence to the 24-hour interpretation. I will suggest that this casual interpretation
contradicts the biblical significance of the seventh day. In chapter 4 of Hebrews, the
author very clearly tells his listeners that God's rest of the seventh day continues at the
present time. It was not a 24-hour period of time that gave way to the eighth day.
Nowhere in Scripture is there an eighth day which followed the Creation Week. Here is
the evidence of a continued seventh Creation Day. First, the writer of Hebrews is quoting
from David in Psalm 95:7-11. In this passage God refers to the Day of His rest as Today.
Heb. 4:4 says that on the seventh day, God rested from His works. Verse 6 says that it
still remains for some to enter that rest. Verse 7 says that the Day was still ongoing a long
time later in David's time. Verse 9 says that the Day remains for God's people to enter His