Alas, the source critics place the authorship of Gen. 1 by the Priestly §source during the Exile or shortly thereafter. One could thus argue it was written as a counterpoint to the oft-heard (by the exiles) Enuma Elish creation story of the Babylonians. As such, it would have structural and thematic similarities but distinct theological differences. For instance, the Enuma Elish has creation occurring over a series of generations. Gen.1, written to show the much greater power of monotheistic Elohim, reduces this to a series of days - the shortest easily observable time unit in antiquity. The Enuma Elish appears as a chaotic series of battles and conflicts, while the orderly 3 day/3 day symmetric creation sequence clearly shows omnipotence and control of Elohim. With this view, the days are indeed of 24 hour duration since they are used to provide a literal contrast with the much longer generations of the Babylonian gods. It should be noted that P enjoys using numbers to show the intentional control of Elohim, as demonstrated in his version of the Flood narrative.
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