Days of Creation

[Sweet Psamy]

I think they were not literal days. If you literally read the Bible you will find out that there were times God formed and created man.These 2 actions happened at separate times.So I agree with the author that the 7 days of creation may not have been literal days.

[Sonya Nicolaidis]

I truly believe that it does not really matter if God took a literal seven days to create everything or if it took 7,000 years or more. The real matter is that God created everything even if we do not understand how He did it or how long it took. Do I believe that God could create everything in seven days? Yes, I do! It does not bother me if people believe it took longer.

This is a great comment and one that reflects how I feel about this as well. I'm inclined to believe that it wasn't seven literal days, as in 24 hours, but periods of time the length of which is undisclosed. A bit like when people say, "In my day, ..." On points like this, it's easy to get unnecessarily caught up with semantics. I believe it's far better to look beyond the literal and try to find the deeper meaning.

[Jsovermyer]

The world was very different back then, so its really difficult for the time period defined to be one day. Moreover, on day 4 actual day and night was created. Earlier there was just light. So the time period involved is less than 1 day.

Yes, if day and night didn't exist before Day 4, then how was time measured before then? I don't believe the seven days of creation were actual 24 hour days.

[Jsovermyer]

I truly believe that it does not really matter if God took a literal seven days to create everything or if it took 7,000 years or more. The real matter is that God created everything even if we do not understand how He did it or how long it took. Do I believe that God could create everything in seven days? Yes, I do! It does not bother me if people believe it took longer.

This is a great comment and one that reflects how I feel about this as well. I'm inclined to believe that it wasn't seven literal days, as in 24 hours, but periods of time the length of which is undisclosed. A bit like when people say, "In my day, ..." On points like this, it's easy to get unnecessarily caught up with semantics. I believe it's far better to look beyond the literal and try to find the deeper meaning.

I completely agree with you. It doesn't really matter how long it took to create the world. It could have been millions of years. It could have been in a blink of an eye.

[Jsovermyer]

The book The Biblical Clock by Daniel Friedmann analyzed creation scientifically. One of the things discovered was that the 7 day period was not literal. So I completely agree with that analysis.

Yes! I read that book also, and was thinking the same thing. He had it broken down very scientifically, and it fits with all the scientific / geological dating of the earth.

It sounds like the idea of creation in the Old Testament and the idea of evolution may both be correct and possible.

[Abandoned_Account]

This is something I bring up with a lot of people when discussing my qualms with religious texts. We have no sure fire way of knowing just how they measured time or if their version of a month or a year aligned with our own. Lots of things can be lost to time or through faulty translations. It doesn't make much sense for people to have supposedly lived for hundreds or even thousands of years without access to the medical resources and access to food and shelter that we have today, and yet the Bible claims that they did just that.

[DBEvans14501]

Prof Gerald Schroeder (Prof of physics, formerly of MIT now as Jerusalem U.) discusses this and points to the difference in time depending on location of the measurement. Time moves slower the further you get from the earth. So, from God's perspective it would be 7 days, from ours, far longer. Time is merely the measurement of the rate of change.

[Miercoles]

I don't believe it was 7 literal days. Time and its regulation would have been very different from today.

[Areej Tahir]

Okay so maybe, in the skies it was 7 days but for us it was longer than that. I must say, I never actually thought about it

[Chrystal Oaks]

Do you agree with Val Greenwood's view that the 7 days of the creation may not have been literal days? He says we can't be sure how long the time periods actually were. What do you think?

It depends. From the viewpoint of science, the days are not literal 24-hours. Based on the research of Sitchin, the days are literal. For me, the days of creation are much longer than 24-hours.

[Chrystal Oaks]

This is something I bring up with a lot of people when discussing my qualms with religious texts. We have no sure fire way of knowing just how they measured time or if their version of a month or a year aligned with our own. Lots of things can be lost to time or through faulty translations. It doesn't make much sense for people to have supposedly lived for hundreds or even thousands of years without access to the medical resources and access to food and shelter that we have today, and yet the Bible claims that they did just that.

I know it doesn't make sense, but what if people in the Old Testament did live thousands of years and perhaps created the ideas and resources we have today. I have found that stories that are classified as Myth or Legends have an element of truth thanks to archeological discoveries.. Why would The Bible be any different?

[Jsovermyer]

Do you agree with Val Greenwood's view that the 7 days of the creation may not have been literal days? He says we can't be sure how long the time periods actually were. What do you think?

It depends. From the viewpoint of science, the days are not literal 24-hours. Based on the research of Sitchin, the days are literal. For me, the days of creation are much longer than 24-hours.

I agree. I'll go with the scientific viewpoint.

[Nuel Ukah]

Do you agree with Val Greenwood's view that the 7 days of the creation may not have been literal days? He says we can't be sure how long the time periods actually were. What do you think?

If the Bible says it's seven days, then it's seven days. I don't agree with the author's opinion.
God didn't create the Earth with human language. There was no English, Greek, or Hebrew. God spoke in the language of the Spirit (tongues) during creation. So when He was telling Moses the story of creation, God had to interprete those tongues of the Spirit in Hebrew so that Moses could understand and write it down for the Israelites to read and teach their generations to come. So, if God told Moses it took Him seven days to create the Earth, then He literally meant seven days.

[Jsovermyer]

Do you agree with Val Greenwood's view that the 7 days of the creation may not have been literal days? He says we can't be sure how long the time periods actually were. What do you think?

If the Bible says it's seven days, then it's seven days. I don't agree with the author's opinion.
God didn't create the Earth with human language. There was no English, Greek, or Hebrew. God spoke in the language of the Spirit (tongues) during creation. So when He was telling Moses the story of creation, God had to interprete those tongues of the Spirit in Hebrew so that Moses could understand and write it down for the Israelites to read and teach their generations to come. So, if God told Moses it took Him seven days to create the Earth, then He literally meant seven days.

Thank you for your strong opinion. I appreciate your viewpoint on this topic.

[KL9999]

I think the 7 days were symbolic of a time frame, but not specifically 7 days.