Paula

I don’t think the issue here has been so much about OEC/YEC as it has been about how scripture can be interpreted. And it is not at all as simple as “this is how the Hebrews take it” either. One must consider standard textual criticism of any document, including rules of grammar, historical setting, author, intended audience, etc. It is no more accurate to throw out “Greek thought” as it is to throw out anything else.

And I think it’s a cheap shot to accuse Cheryl of ignoring your point. I have my issues with her on other topics but I always made it clear that I would not accuse her of “seeing only what she wants to see”, even when that very accusation was made toward me. And in all fairness, I could easily say that you seemed to keep pressing the issue as more of a personal effort to promote OEC than to challenge Cheryl’s interpretational methods. We all have our blind spots, and unless everyone who makes such accusations is prepared to take them in return, it would be best not to make them at all.

That said, I will only add that what “evening and morning, the nth day” means TO ANY READER TODAY is irrelevant. The important thing is what it meant in Hebrew during the time it was written, and whether this meaning is consistent with this same pattern found elsewhere in scripture. While I don’t have the research here in front of me, I’ve read that this pattern with the numbers always indicates normal Earth days as we know them. And of course, when we consider the Ten Commandments with its statement about the 7-day week being based upon creation week, there is far less speculation involved in taking it as literal.