Michael Kruse

Day Age issue…

The Hebrew translated day in Genesis yom.

Genesis 2:4 at the beginning of the second creation account:

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day yom) that Jehovah God made earth and heaven. (ASV)

Yet we just read Gen. 1 where it took six days for creation. Here “day†is used to describe this multiple “day†process.

Yes, I have seen the widely circulated and erroneous claim that day with an ordinal must mean 24-hour day. (Even my “Mounce’s Expository Dictionary†gets this wrong.) Van Bebber and Taylor claim that in 358 cases out of 359 where day is used with an ordinal it represents a 24-hour day. However, in only 249 of those cases is an ordinal number with the singular use of day and all refer to events within the context of human activity and human history. In Genesis one, we are talking about a period in natural history before humanity.

But what of our 359th case that did not meet the rule. Turn to Zachariah 14:7. This verse uses precisely the same Hebrew wording as Genesis 1:5, yowm-‘echaad.

It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime-a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light. (NIV)

but it shall be one day which is known unto Jehovah; not day, and not night; but it shall come to pass, that at evening time there shall be light. (ASV)

And there shall be continuous day (it is known to the LORD), not day and not night, for at evening time there shall be light. (RSV)

But it shall be one continuous day, known to the Lord–not day and not night, but at evening time there shall be light. (Amplified.)

The most literal reading of this verse would be:

“And it will be day one which shall be known to Jehovah.â€

The day is the “Day of the Lord,†which all biblical scholars agree is an era in history not a 24 hour day. Furthermore, it is instructive that it is used to indicate a unique and special kind of day.

Then there are other passages like Hosea 6:2:

After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will restore us,
that we may live in his presence.

This in not a literal 24 hour day. There is no rule of Hebrew grammar that requires yom with an ordinal to mean 24-hour day and biblical evidence of to the contrary. The Zachariah 14 passage actually strengthens the idea that something unique is meant by the Gen. 1:5.

The Gen. 1 passage also includes the expression “there was evening, and there was morning†with each day. While we can find other verses that use both “evening†and “morning†in close proximity no where else in scripture is this phraseology used.. Thus almost certainly suggests something atypical is intended.

Furthermore, as noted earlier, Hebrew is a very limited language that frequently resorts to metaphors and euphemisms. There was no Hebrew word for “long age†or “long period†in biblical times. Some have suggested olam could be used but it did not carry these connotations until long after the Bible was written. It is used in scripture to indicate a an indefinite extension into the future or past (usually the future) but it is never used in the sense of a lengthy era in the past with a fixed beginning and end. Therefore, in biblical Hebrew, if we wish to speak of fixed lengthy era in the past were are constrained to use the word yom with some qualifier, like maybe “there was evening, and there was morning†to euphemistically indicate a definite beginning and end.

1. yom can mean era. It must be determined by context.
2. There is not rule of Hebrew grammar that requires yom with an ordinal number to mean 24-hour day. There is biblical evidence to the contrary.
3. “there was evening, and there was morning†is unique and almost certainly indicates that something is unique from the passage.
4. There was no easy non-euphemistic way of communicating an ancient era of fixed duration in biblical Hebrew.

My Conclusion:

The Genesis “days†are specific epochs in history with fixed starts and ends (evening and morning) expressed in the preliterate and pre-scientific poetic language of biblical Hebrew.