Please Help Us Keep These Thousands of Blog Posts Growing and Free for All

$5.00

There are two major views with regard to the time involved in Creation: the old earth view and the young-earth view. The latter believes the universe is no more than approximately 15,000 years old, while the former holds that it is probably about 15,000,000,000 years old.

Young-earthers take the “days” of Creation to be six successive, literal, solar days of twenty-four hours each, totaling 144 hours of Creation. They also reject any significant time gaps between the accounts in Genesis 1 or within the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11.

THE SIX TWENTY-FOUR-HOUR-DAY VIEW OF CREATION

Not all scholars who take the days of Genesis to be twenty-four hour days are young-earthers (some hold a gap theory); however, all who hold to a young earth hold to the twenty-four-hour-day view.

Arguments Offered for the Twenty-Four-Hour-Day View

There are many biblical arguments presented in favor of the twenty-four-hour-day position. These include the following.

The Normal Meaning of the Word Day (Yom)

It is contended that the usual meaning of the Hebrew word yom (“day”) is twenty-four hours unless the context indicates otherwise. The context does not indicate anything but a twenty-four-hour-day in Genesis 1; hence, the days should be taken as solar days.

The Use of Numbered Series

Further, it is noted that when numbers are used in a series (1, 2, 3 …) in connection with the word day (yom) in the Old Testament, it always refers to twenty-four-hour-days. The absence of any exception to this in the Old Testament is given as evidence of the fact that Genesis 1 is referring to twenty-four-hour-days.

The Use of “Evening and Morning”

Another line of evidence is the use of the phrase “evening and morning” in connection with each day in Genesis 1. Since the literal twenty-four-hour-day on the Jewish calendar began in the “evening” (by sunset) and ended in the “morning” (before sunset) the next day, it is concluded that these are literal twenty-four-hour-days.

The Comparison With a Six-Day Workweek

According to the law of Moses (Ex. 20:11), the Jewish workweek (Sunday through Friday) was to be followed by a day of rest on Saturday, just as God had done in His “six-day week” of creation. The Jewish workweek refers to six successive twenty-four-hour-days. This being the case, it seems that the creation week, like the workweek, was only 144 hours long.

Life Cannot Exist for Thousands of Years Without Light

Young-earthers claim that according to Genesis 1, light was not made until the fourth day (v. 14), but there was life on the third day (v. 1:11–13). However, life on earth cannot exist for millions (or even thousands) of years without light; thus, the “days” must not have been long periods of time.

Plants Cannot Live Without Animals

Plants were created on the third day (1:11–13), and animals were not created until later (1:20–23). There is a symbiotic relation between plants and animals, one depending on the other for its life. For example, plants give off oxygen and take in carbon dioxide, and animals do the reverse. Therefore, plants and animals must have been created closely together, not separated by long periods of time.

The Old Earth View Implies Death Before Adam

According to the old-earth position, there was death before Adam. Nevertheless, the Bible declares that death came only after Adam, as a result of his sin: “Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12; cf. 8:20–22).

The Old-Earth View Is an Accommodation to Evolution

It is well known that the theory of evolution (or common ancestry) depends on very long periods of time for life to develop from a one-celled animal to human beings. Without these long periods of time, evolution would not be possible. Thus, it is argued by young-earthers that granting long periods of time is an accommodation to evolution.

Mark 10:6 Affirms That Adam and Eve Were Created at the Beginning

According to this text, “At the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ “If God created humankind at the beginning of Creation, then they were not created at the end of millions of years, as the old-earth view contends.

Genesis 1:1 BDC: Is the earth only 6,000 to 10,000 years old? Are the creative days literally, only 24 hours long?

A Response to the Arguments Offered for the Twenty-Four-Hour-Day View

In spite of the fact that many find these arguments convincing proof of six successive twenty-four-hour-days of Creation, the case is less than definitive for several reasons. Those who reject the six-successive-solar-day view reply as follows.

The Normal Meaning of the Word Day (Yom)

It is true that most often the Hebrew word yom (“day”) means “twenty-four hours.” However, this is not definitive for its meaning in Genesis 1 for several reasons.

First, the meaning of a term is not determined by majority vote, but by the context in which it is used. It is not important how many times it is used elsewhere, but how it is used here.

Second, even in the creation story in Genesis 1–2, “day” (yom) is used of more than a twenty-four-hour period. Speaking of the whole six “days” of creation, Genesis 2:4 refers to it as “the day” (yom) when all things were created.

Third, and finally, yom is elsewhere used of long periods of time, as in Psalm 90:4, which is cited in 2 Peter 3:8: “A day is like a thousand years.”

The Use of Numbered Series

Critics of the twenty-four-hour-day view point out that there is no rule of the Hebrew language demanding that all numbered days in a series refer to twenty-four-hour-days. Further, even if there were no exceptions in the rest of the Old Testament, it would not mean that “day” in Genesis 1 does not refer to more than a twenty four hour period of time: Genesis 1 may be the exception! Finally, contrary to the solar-day view, there is another example in the Old Testament of a numbered series of days that are not twenty-four-hour-days. Hosea 6:1–2 reads: “Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.” It is clear that the prophet is not speaking of twenty-four-hour “days,” but of longer periods of time in the future. Even so, he uses numbered days in a series.

How Long Were Adam and Eve In the Garden Before They Sinned?

The Use of “Evening and Morning”

First, the fact that the phrase “evening and morning” is often used in connection with twenty-four-hour-days does not mean it must always be used in this way.

Second, if one is going to take everything in Genesis 1 in a strictly literal way, then the phrase “evening and morning” does not encompass all of a twenty-four-hour-day, but only the late afternoon of one day and the early morning of another. This is considerably less than twenty four hours.

Third, technically, the text does not say the “day” was composed of “evening and morning” (thus allegedly making a twenty four hour Jewish day); rather, it simply says, “And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day” (Gen. 1:5). Further, the phrase may be a figure of speech indicating a beginning and end to a definite period of time, just as we see in phrases like “the dawn of world history” or the “sunset years of one’s life.”

Fourth, if every day in this series of seven is to be taken as twenty-four hours, why is the phrase “evening and morning” not used with one of the days (the seventh)? In fact, as we shall see (below), the seventh day is not twenty-four hours, and thus there is no necessity to take the other days as twenty four hours either, since all of them alike use the same word (yom) and have a series of numbers with them.

Fifth, and finally, in Daniel 8:14, “evenings and mornings” (cf. v. 26) refer to a period of 2,300 days. Indeed, often in the Old Testament the phrase is used as a figure of speech meaning “continually” (cf. Ex. 18:13; 27:21; Lev. 24:3; Job 4:20).

The Comparison With a Six-Day Workweek

It is true that the creation week is compared with a workweek (Ex. 20:11); however, it is not uncommon in the Old Testament to make unit-to-unit comparisons rather than minute-for-minute ones. For example, God appointed forty years of wandering for forty days of disobedience (Num. 14:34). And, in Daniel 9, 490 days equals 490 years (cf. 9:24–27). What is more, we know the seventh day is more than twenty-four hours, since according to Hebrews 4 the seventh day is still going on. Genesis says that “on the seventh day [God] rested” (Gen. 2:2), but Hebrews informs us that God is still in that Sabbath rest into which He entered after He created: “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his” (Heb. 4:10).

Life Cannot Exist for Thousands of Years Without Light

Light was not created on the fourth day, as defenders of the solar day argue; rather, it was made on the very first day when God said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3). As to why there was light on the first day when the sun did not appear until the fourth day, there are various possibilities. Some scholars have noted a parallelism between the first three days (light, water, and land—all empty) and the second three days (light, water, and land—all filled with bodies). This may indicate a parallelism in which the first and fourth days cover the same period, in which case the sun existed from the beginning.

Others have pointed out that while the sun was created on the first day, it did not appear until the fourth day. Perhaps this was due to a vapor cloud that allowed light through, but not the distinct shape of the heavenly bodies from which the light emanated.

Young Earth Creationism, Old Earth Creationism, and Theistic Evolution

Plants Cannot Live Without Animals

Some plants and animals are interdependent, but not all. Genesis does not mention all the plants and animals, but only some. If the “days” are six successive periods, then those forms of plant and animal life that need each other could have been created together. In fact, the basic order of events is the order of dependence. For instance, many plants and animals can exist without humans (and they were created first), but humans (who were created on the sixth day) cannot exist without certain plants and animals. In addition, if the “days” are parallel, then the problem does not exist, since plants and animals would exist at the same time. In any event, the argument from the symbiotic relation of plants and animals does not prove that the six “days” of Genesis 1 must be only 144 hours in duration.

The Old-Earth View Implies Death Before Adam

There are several problems with this argument.

First, Romans 5:12 does not say all animals die because of Adam’s sin, but only that “all men” die as a consequence.

Second, Romans 8 does not say that animal death results from Adam’s sin, but only that the “creation was subjected to frustration” as a result of it (v. 20).

Third, if Adam ate anything—and he had to eat in order to live—then at least plants had to die before he sinned.

Fourth, and finally, the fossil evidence indicates animal death before human death, since people are found only on the top (later) strata while animals are found in lower (earlier) strata.

The Old-Earth View Is an Accommodation to Evolution

In response to this charge, it must be observed that allowing for long periods of time for the development of life came long before the idea of evolution. Augustine (354–430), for one, held to long periods of time for the development of life (CG, 11.6).

Also, even in modern times, scientists had concluded that long periods of time were involved before Darwin wrote in 1859.

Furthermore, long periods of time do not help evolution, since without intelligent intervention, more time does not produce the specified complexity involved in life. Natural laws randomize, not specify. For example, dropping red, white, and blue bags of confetti from a plane at 1,000 feet in the air will never produce an American flag on the ground. Giving it more time to fall by dropping it at 10,000 feet will diffuse it even more.

Mark 10:6 Affirms That Adam and Eve Were Created at the Beginning

First, Adam was not created at the beginning but at the end of the creation period (on the sixth day), no matter how long or short the days were.

Second, the Greek word for “create” (ktisis) can and sometimes does mean “institution” or “ordinance” (cf. 1 Peter 2:13). Since Jesus is speaking of the institution of marriage in Mark 10:6, it could mean “from the beginning of the institution of marriage.”

Third, and finally, even if Mark 10:6 is speaking of the original creation events, it does not mean there could not have been a long period of time involved in those creative events.

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY: The Age of the Earth

THE “DAYS” OF GENESIS MAY INVOLVE LONG PERIODS OF TIME

Other orthodox Christians believe that the “days” of Genesis 1 may involve significant periods of time. They offer two lines of evidence in support of this view: biblical and scientific.

The Biblical Evidence for Long Days in Genesis

There are many indications within the text of Scripture to support the belief that the creation “days” were longer than twenty-four hours. The following are those most often given in support of this position.

The Word Day (Yom) Often Means a Long Period of Time

The fact is that the same word that can mean twenty-four hours also often means a longer period of time. First of all, “day” sometimes means a prophetic day; that is, a future time period of differing lengths, as in “the day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31; cf. 2 Peter 3:10). Furthermore, as we have seen, 2 Peter 3:8—“A day is as a thousand years”—is based on Psalm 90:4: “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by.” As with any other word, the meaning of the word day must be determined by the context in which it is used. In many contexts, “day” means much more than twenty-four hours. It can mean thousands, or even more.

The Word Day Is More Than Twenty-Four Hours Even in Genesis 1–2

Even in the creation passage, yom is used of a period of time longer than twenty-four hours. Summing up the entire six “days,” the text declares: “This is the history of the heavens and earth when they were created, in the day [yom] that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens” (Gen. 2:4 nkjv). “The day” here means six “days,” which indicates a broad meaning of the word day in the Bible, just as we have in English.

The Seventh “Day” Is Thousands of Years Long

Everyone agrees that it has been at least thousands of years since the time of creation, yet the Bible declares that God rested on the seventh day after His six days of creation (Gen. 2:2–3). According to the book of Hebrews, God is still in His Sabbath rest from creation (4:3–5); hence, the seventh day has been at least six thousand years long, even on the shortest of all the chronologies of humankind.

The Third “Day” Is Longer Than Twenty-Four Hours

On the third “day,” God not only created vegetation, but it grew to maturity. The text says that on the third day “the land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds” (Gen. 1:12, emphasis added). To grow from seeds to maturity and produce more seeds is a process that takes much longer than a day, a week, or even a month for most plants. There is no indication in the text that its growth was anything but natural; it is its origin that was supernatural.

Did God Create the Earth In Six 24-hour Days?

The Sixth “Day” Is Longer Than Twenty-Four Hours

It would also appear that the sixth “day” of creation was considerably longer than a solar day. Consider everything that happened during this one “day.”

First, God created all the many hundreds (or thousands) of land animals (Gen. 1:24–25).

Second, God “formed” man of the dust of the earth (Gen. 2:7). This Hebrew word (yatsar) means “to mold” or “form,” which implies time. Yatsar is used specifically of the work of a potter (cf. Jer. 18:2f.).

Third, God said, “I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen. 2:18, emphasis added). This indicates a time subsequent to the time of the announcement.

Fourth, Adam observed and named this whole multitude of animals (Gen. 2:19). As Robert Newman noted, “If every one of the approximately 15,000 living species of such animals (not to mention those now extinct) were brought to Adam to be named, it would have taken ten hours if he spent only two seconds on each.” This is hardly enough time for Adam to study each animal and determine an appropriate name for it. Assuming a minimum of only two minutes each, the process would have taken six hundred hours (or twenty-five days).

Fifth, Adam searched for a helpmate for himself, apparently among all the creatures God had made. “But for Adam no suitable helper was found” (implying a time of searching) (Gen. 2:20, emphasis added).

Sixth, God put Adam to sleep and operated on him, taking out one of his ribs and healing the flesh (Gen. 2:21). This too involved additional time.

Seventh, Eve was brought to Adam, who observed her, accepted her, and was joined to her (Gen. 2:22–25).

In conclusion, it seems highly unlikely that all of these events—especially the fourth one—were compressed within a twenty-four-hour period or, more precisely, within the approximately twelve hours of light each day afforded.

The Scientific Evidence for Long Days in Genesis

In addition to the biblical evidence for long periods of time, there are scientific arguments that the world has existed for billions of years. The age of the universe is based on

(1) the speed of light and the distance of the stars;

(2) the rate of expansion of the universe;

(3) the fact that early rocks have been radioactively dated in terms of billions of years;

(4) the rate that salt runs into the sea and the amount of salt there, which indicates multimillions of years.

While all of these arguments have certain unprovable presuppositions, nonetheless, they may be true and, hence, point to a universe that is billions rather than thousands of years in age (see Ross, CT).

OTHER VIEWS OF THE “DAYS” OF GENESIS

If, of course, the “days” of Genesis are long periods of time, there is no conflict with modern science on the age of the earth. Nevertheless, even if the “days” of Genesis are twenty-four hours, there are still many ways to reconcile long periods of time with Genesis 1–2.

The Revelatory-Day View

Some conservative scholars have suggested that the “days” of Genesis may be twenty-four-hour days of revelation, not days of Creation (see Wiseman, CRSD, all). That is, they propose that it took God a literal solar week (of 144 hours) to reveal to Adam (or Moses) what He had done in the long ages before humans were created. Even in the Exodus passage (20:11) that speaks of the heavens and earth being “made” (asah) in six days, the word can mean “revealed.” Just as a prophet can get revelation from God looking forward to a future series of events (cf. Dan. 2, 7, 9; Rev. 6–19), even so God can reveal a past series of events to one of His servants. Indeed, Moses was on Mount Sinai for forty days (Ex. 24:18), and God could have taken six of these days to reveal the past creation events to him. Or, after God created Adam, He could have taken six literal days to reveal to him what He had done before Adam was created. Some scholars believe this material could have been memorized and passed on as the first “account of the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 2:4), just as the other “histories” (or “genealogies”) were apparently recorded and passed on (cf. Gen. 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; etc.).

The Alternate-Day-Age View

Other evangelical scholars have suggested that the “days” of Genesis are twenty-four-hour periods of time in which God created the things mentioned, but that they are separated by long periods of time in between. This would account for the indications in Genesis 1 that these are twenty-four-hour days (like numbered days and “evening and morning”), while at the same time leaving room for the geological ages demanded by modern science.

Gap Theories

I. Scofield (1843–1921) made popular the view that there could be a great gap of time between the first two verses of the Bible into which all of the geological ages fit. In this way, the “days” could be twenty-four hours each, and yet the world could still be many millions of years old or more.

Others believe that there may be a “gap” or, better, a lapse of time before the six twenty-four-hour days of Genesis begin. In this case, the first verse of the Bible would not necessarily indicate the original ex nihilo creation of God, but more recent acts of God forming a world He had previously created (see Waltke, CAG, all).

The Ideal-Time View

There is also a position variously known as the prochronism, apparent-age, or ideal-time view. According to this perspective, the earth and all living things were created with the appearance of age (see Gosse, O, chapters 6–7)—that is, they were created mature. For example, Adam may have looked twenty-one years old a minute after he was created, but he was really only a minute old. Likewise, it is argued that Adam may have had a naval, like all his descendants do, even though he was never connected by an umbilical cord to a mother. Also, it is theorized that the first trees may have been created with rings in them rather than receiving them from annual growth. If this is so, then the world can be actually young and only apparently very old.

The Literary-Framework View

Still others, like Herman Ridderbos (b. 1900), have suggested that the use of “days” and “evening and morning” are merely ancient literary devices to frame certain periods of time in order to encapsulate them in literary form much like we use a “chapter” to do the same. It is reasoned that since evening and morning were natural ways to point to a period of time with a beginning and an end, this was an appropriate way for God to reveal to Adam (or Moses) what He had done in certain periods of time before humans arrived on the scene.

In summary, there are numerous ways that one can account for long periods of time and still accept a literal understanding of Genesis 1–2. That is, one does not have to give up the normal historical-grammatical way of interpreting the Bible in order to embrace these views. Therefore, there is no necessary conflict between Genesis and the belief that the universe is millions or even billions of years old. Indeed, of all the ways of interpreting Genesis 1–2, only the “religious only” or “myth” view is flatly incompatible with an evangelical understanding of Scripture, since it rejects that Genesis 1 is providing literal information about the origin of the space-time universe and all living things.

By Norman L. Geisler

SOURCES

Augustine. The City of God.
Geisler, Norman. Knowing the Truth About Creation.
———. “Genealogies, Open or Closed” in Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics.
Gosse, Philip Henry. Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot.
Morris, Henry. Biblical Cosmology and Modern Science.
———. The Genesis Record.
Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology, Volume Two: God, Creation (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2003), 637–647.
Newman, Robert C., and Herman Eckelmann, Jr. Genesis One and the Origin of the Earth.
Ramm, Bernard. The Christian View of Science and Scripture.
Ridderbos, Herman. Is There a Conflict Between Genesis 1 and Natural Science?
Ross, Hugh. Creation and Time.
Stoner, Don. A New Look at an Old Earth.
Waltke, Bruce. The Creation Account in Genesis 1:1–3; Part I: Introduction to Biblical Cosmogony in Bibliotheca Sacra.
———. The Creation Account in Genesis 1:1–3; Part II: The Restitution Theory.
———. The Creation Account in Genesis 1:1–3; Part III: The Initial Chaos Theory and the Precreation Chaos Theory.
———. The Creation Account in Genesis 1:1–3; Part IV: The Theology of Genesis 1.
———. The Creation Account in Genesis 1:1–3; Part V: The Theology of Genesis 1 Continued.
Wiseman, Donald. Creation Revealed in Six Days.
Young, Davis. Christianity and the Age of the Earth.
Young, Edward. Studies in Genesis One.