Sure there is. The story tells us there were six days with evening and mornings. So, according to the story, six days elapsed. Yom is used the same way almost every single time in the entire OT, even though it’s used hundreds of times. No reason to consider Genesis 1 an exception.
It appears to me as if that the sabbath rest day of God doesn’t “end” or “start” on Earth or heaven, God simply rests in His sanctuary (which in ancient near eastern literature was a holy mountain/sanctuary of some sort, Garden of Eden was probably a holy sanctuary on Earth belonging to God.
Well, I am not convinced by your theory. By any chance, does your claim appear in the scholarly literature?
That was certainly an obtuse response.
The first three days of Genesis are unlike any days of existence at any other time – there is no way to measure how long the “day” is … only that a day has elapsed.
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The number 7 is used in the Bible to symbolize completeness or that something is finished. Perhaps the authors use of the number 7 has more to do with the symbol of completeness than an actual period of time. Just a thought.
Why would the author of Genesis mean anything but a 24 hour period in the first six days?
Did you all see today’s blog post on the numerology of Genesis 1. Good stuff. I guess there is a distinction between numerical meaning and numerological meaning.
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To us a day is 24 hours because thats how it take the earth to turn on its axis as it rotates around the sun. The author of Genesis may not have had the concept of a 24 hour day in mind when he was using the number 7 because for him it may have just been used as a symbol of completeness. The first three days of creation had no sun or moon, so there would be no reason to even impose the literal interpretation of a day as 24 hours.
Time is also a construct of man because we are temporal beings, time does not apply to God because He is eternal. When man was first created he was eternal too, he had full access to the tree of life - he did not age or die. It was only after the fall of man that man, whose days were now numbered, became aware of time. During the creation week time did not matter so the number 7 may have more signifigance in a symbolic sense than a literal one.
I agree that various numbers play important symbolic roles in the NT. So while the days are regular days, the reason why there are seven of them is for biblical symbolic meanings. So the Genesis text does not espouse a literal 7-day story, but perhaps an allegorical one. That is my view.
Because there is no set time for a day/night. 24 hours is the average that we use. But the only way to separate day and night, and separate one day from another is to use the sun.
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Exactly.
Also I was just thinking about Genesis 1:4-5
God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
Evening and morning are defined as when the sun sets or rises, but the sun hasn’t been created yet. For there to be a literal evening and morning the earth must be rotating into and out of the light, whatever that source might be.
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24 hours (or, according to the author of Genesis, the period that constitutes an evening and a morning) was indeed the set time in the days when Genesis was written for the length of a day.
Indeed. But we have either a fictional alternation between dark and light from some unknown source … or nothing. God provides no benchmark for providing a credible time keeper of a day …
Do you think the event referenced here in Luke 16 actually happened?
Luk 16:22
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
Luk 16:23
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Do I think the “parable” of the rich man ever happened? Is that a trick question? It’s a parable.
Again, there is no fictional alternation. It’s an allegory. And each ‘day’ constitutes an evening and a morning in real terms.
How exactly do you know it is a parable?
Luke 16:1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. [Story continues 8 more verses]
Luke 16:9 to 13 (Summation by Jesus)
And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. … No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
[Reaction of the Pharisees]
Luk 16:14
And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.
Jesus reacts to the Pharisees - - Luke 16:15-18
And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God…And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail…Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.
New Story - Luke 16:19
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
Luke 16:20-24
And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores. . . . . . .
Luke 16:25 to 30
But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented…And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
Luke 16:31
And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
[End of Chapter 16]
Beginning of new Chapter - Luke 17:1
Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
Luke 17:2
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
etc. etc.
You make the assumption that this 16 ends with a parable. Are you saying that such a conversation between Abraham and the Rich Man was not possible?
I’ll make it simpler for you. If it’s a parable, it didn’t happen for obvious reasons. If it isn’t a parable, then I do think it happened.
You have no way to prove that it is a parable. There are obvious flags in the text that tell us when Jesus is making a parable.
Why would Jesus put the “historical Abraham” into the narrative if it was supposed to be a fiction?
I don’t think a “non-fiction/fiction” binary is helpful when approaching Genesis. Parables are an identifiable genre, and Genesis 1 isn’t a parable.
I don’t know how you can be sure that parts of Genesis 1 are not, in essence, a parable. There are plenty of thoughtful Christians who think Creation in Genesis is emulating the concept parallel to Solomon’s Temple.
If a biblical text is not a parable … do you have another category of literature other than “description of literal events” ?
All I’m saying is that Luke 16 may very well have a narrative that is mistakenly interpreted as a parable.
Yes. Origin story.
Parables are short stories whose purpose is teaching a moral lesson via comparison or analogy.
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