So, was having a conversation with one of my favourite living theologians the other day and he mentioned some people believe that the word ‘day’ in Genesis actually refers to ‘age’. By which he was not making fun of my advanced years, but inserting the idea of ‘millions of years’ into the text. I shook my head, sadly. Ah, the follies of youth…
I have already dealt with this issue in several other posts, but in this post I wish to come at the issue from a linguistic and translation perspective. Let me start out saying that, to the best of my knowledge, no respectable translator has ever translated the Hebrew word ‘yom’ as ‘age’ in Genesis One and Two.
Let me say, secondly, that there is no reason to do so. I am not saying it isn’t possible… I am saying that there is no linguistic reason to prefer that translation. To say that a given translation is a possible translation is no reason to say it is the preferred one. To say that a word could have a particular meaning is not to say that you should desire to insert it there.
Many people have desired to do so for reasons which lay outside the text. I will leave it to them to try to convince me that these a-textual reasons should inform our reading of Genesis. But linguistically speaking, and I’m not going to go into all the details here, it is not the preferred reading.
And now I am going to lay out yet another reason why, no, ‘age’ is not the best reading…
Begats
Now, let me start a bit off topic. I recently made a claim about the ‘begats’ passages (I’m not sure the post has posted yet) and I think that that passage will make a good example passage for what I wish to do:
Matthew 1:4-6
And Aram begat Aminadab; and
Aminadab begat Naasson; and
Naasson begat Salmon;
And
Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and
Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and
Obed begat Jesse;
And Jesse begat David the king; and
David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;
(Did you ever notice that Rachab is the great-grandmother of David?)
Now in my post, that other post on the other topic, I claim that every time the word ‘begat’ is used, what is actually meant, in the overwhelming majority of cases is:
This man married a woman, the man and the woman had lots of sex, one particular evening (or morning, I am not particular) that sex produced a child, and nine months later the child came into the world between the legs of his mother.
So, that said, let’s try translating these verses using this understanding:
Mat 1:4 And Aram married a woman we don’t know, had sex with that woman, one evening that sex produced a child, and nine months later Aminadab came forth into the world between the legs of his mother;
and Aminadab married a woman we don’t know, had sex with that woman, one evening that sex produced a child, and nine months later Naasson came forth into the world between the legs of his mother; ;
and Naasson married a woman we don’t know, had sex with that woman, one evening that sex produced a child, and nine months later Salmon came forth into the world between the legs of his mother;
Mat 1:5 And Salmon married Rachab, had sex with Rachab, one evening that sex produced a child, and nine months later Booz came forth into the world between the legs of Rachab;
and Booz married Ruth, had sex with Ruth, one evening that sex produced a child, and nine months later begat Obed came forth into the world between the legs of Ruth;
and Obed married a woman we don’t know, had sex with that woman, one evening that sex produced a child, and nine months later begat Jesse; came forth into the world between the legs of his mother;
Mat 1:6 And Jesse married a woman we don’t know, had sex with that woman, one evening that sex produced a child, and nine months later David (who would later become king) came forth into the world between the legs of his mother;
and David the king married her that had been the wife of Urias, had sex with her that had been the wife of Urias, one evening that sex produced a child, and nine months later begat Solomon of ; came forth into the world between the legs of her that had been the wife of Urias;
There, now, except for my crude way of describing birth (I abstained from expanding the word ‘sex’ in the same fashion) is there any possible hint of an idea that this is not what the passage means? Perhaps one or more of these men didn’t marry the woman… we will grant marriage as normative not automatic. And later in the passage we might have to deal with a virgin birth.
But outside of those quibbles, is there any objection to this ‘translation’? Would any of the various Bible translators have thrown up their hands and said, “Oh, no, that’s not what the text implies at all?”
Turning to Day
Now let us turn to the focus of this passage: the word ‘day’ in the creation story. Some have said that it means ‘age’. And by ‘age’ they do not mean that, like the toddler in the back seat, it seemed like an awfully long time. They mean ‘millions of years’. Let’s see how that would work:
Genesis 1:20-23
And God said,
Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and
fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
And God created great whales, and
every living creature that moveth,
which the waters brought forth abundantly,
after their kind, and
every winged fowl after his kind: and
God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and
fill the waters in the seas, and
let fowl multiply in the earth.
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
The only change they need to make is in verse 23:
Gen 1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth millions of years.
But there is another problem. What does ‘evening and morning’ mean? Let’s not bother doing a whole study, lets just be kind and do this:
Gen 1:23 And there was a beginning to this millions of years, and an end to this millions of years, which made up the fifth set of millions of years.
If someone objects to that, let them give me their own, full, translation.
But now we have to define ‘years’. Because the word ‘years’ means ‘Earth rotations about the sun’. And that is a bit problematic in the text until we get to the creation of the Earth, and the creation of the Sun. (IE the fourth day). So before then we will have to use something like ‘millions of the time units that usually pass with the rotation of the Earth around the sun’.)1
Genesis 1:6-8
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and
let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and
divided the waters which were under the firmament from
the waters which were above the firmament: and
it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven.
And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Where verse eight would be changed to read:
Gen 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was a beginning to this millions of the time units that usually pass with the rotation of the Earth around the sun, and an end to this millions of the time units that usually pass with the rotation of the Earth around the sun, which made up the second set of millions of the time units that usually pass with the rotation of the Earth around the sun.
Ok, a bit wordy, but it works. Now let’s deal with a different problem:
Genesis 1:3-5
And God said, Let there be light: and
there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and
God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and
the darkness he called Night.
And the evening and the morning were the first day.
How do we translate verse five? Do you see the problem? It’s in the Hebrew, too. The Hebrew reads:
Gen 1:5 And God called the light yom, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first yom.
Does the translator here translate this:
Gen 1:5 And God called the light millions of the time units that usually pass with the rotation of the Earth around the sun.
??
Well, of course not. He will have to perform the awkward trick of translating the same word two different ways in the same text:
Gen 1:5 And God called the light the bright part of the Earth’s rotation around itself, and the darkness he called Night (ie the dark part of that same rotation). And there was a beginning to this millions of the time units that usually pass with the rotation of the Earth around the sun, and an end to this millions of the time units that usually pass with the rotation of the Earth around the sun, which made up the first set of millions of the time units that usually pass with the rotation of the Earth around the sun.
The Other Six Days
Now, let us take all of the above as possible, if a bit wordy. Let’s look at another passage:
Exodus 20:8-11
Remember the sabbath day,
to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour, and
do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God:
in it thou shalt not do any work,
thou, nor
thy son, nor
thy daughter,
thy manservant, nor
thy maidservant, nor
thy cattle, nor
thy stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that in them is, and
rested the seventh day:
wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and
hallowed it.
And now we have a problem. Let me put in the Hebrew:
Exo 20:8 Remember the sabbath yom, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 Six yoms shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10 But the seventh yom is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Exo 20:11 For in six yoms the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh yom: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath yom, and hallowed it.
First let me present the problem that the ordinary person has reading this text. When looking at the word yom in the phrase ‘six yoms’ they are forced (if they think deeply about it) to notice that the first three of those ‘yoms’ were ‘the time period that the Earth would normally take to rotate about itself, producing a period of dark and then light.’ while the last four were ‘the actual time period that the Earth took to rotate about itself producing a period of dark and then light.’.
But… our believer that yom means ‘millions of the time units that usually pass with the rotation of the Earth around the sun’ in the first three days, and ‘millions of the time units that did actually pass with the rotation of the Earth around the sun’ has yet another problem… does he believe that about everywhere in this passage?
Again, obviously not. So he is forced into this:
Exo 20:8 Remember the seventh time period out of each seven such time periods that the Earth takes to rotate about itself producing a period of dark and then light, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 Six of the seven time periods that the Earth takes to rotate about itself producing a period of dark and then light shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10 But the seventh of the time periods that the Earth takes to rotate about itself producing a period of dark and then light is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Exo 20:11 For in six millions of the time units that usually pass with the rotation of the Earth around the sun’ in the first three, and ‘millions of the time units that did actually pass with the rotation of the Earth around the sun’ for the second three the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh millions of the time units that did actually pass with the rotation of the Earth around the sun: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath yom, and hallowed it.
But what of that last ‘yom’? How is it to be translated? Because it pulls from both sets of yom. We are enjoined to abstain from working during one of the seven time periods the Earth rotates around itself… but this sanctification comes because of one of seven millions of time periods that the Earth rotated around the sun.
Indeed, what of the Seventh Yom itself? Did God rest for millions of years?
Conclusion
Exodus 31:12-17
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep:
for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that
ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.
Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for
it is holy unto you:
every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for
whosoever doeth any work therein,
that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
Six days may work be done; but in
the seventh is the sabbath of rest,
holy to the LORD:
whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day,
he shall surely be put to death.
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath,
to observe the sabbath throughout their generations,
for a perpetual covenant.
It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever:
for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and
on the seventh day he rested, and
was refreshed.
John 7:21-24
Jesus answered and said unto them,
I have done one work, and ye all marvel.
Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and
ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man.
If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken;
are ye angry at me,
because I have made a man every whit whole
on the sabbath day?
Judge not according to the appearance, but
judge righteous judgment.
Hebrews 4:4
For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise,
And God did rest the seventh day
from all his works.
So my response to those who seek to translate ‘yom’ into ‘millions of time periods that it takes the Earth to rotate about the sun’ is threefold:
The linguistics of the text don’t work
There is no textual reason to prefer this reading and
You now need to do the hard work of examining every use of ‘yom’ and ‘hemera’ and seeing how the translation of ‘millions of time periods...’ works there.
The Young Earth Creationist or, as I am, the Philosophical Creationist, has an easy time here. We can cheerfully point out, I have cheerfully pointed out, the various uses of the Hebrew word ‘yom’, and how their use parallels the use of the English word ‘day’. We can even point to some ‘days’ that were pretty long… and pretty short.
And we, too, have to skip back and forth between a couple of meanings in Genesis One and Two. Is this ‘day’ an actual rotation of the Earth, or the same time? Is this ‘day’ meaning ‘light period’ or ‘day’ meaning ‘full rotation’. Been there, done that, got the gold star.
But in my opinion the ‘millions of years’ theorist has it a lot harder… and all for no reason. If I was compelled to, I could speak of God’s poetic and metaphoric use of ‘yom’ (and hemera) to speak of the very long time period where He did some work all condensed into one moment of time… I could compare it to the phrase ‘in my father’s day’. It would be tricky, as I have shown above… and even trickier to justify, as I have shown in my other posts.
But I don’t need to. Nothing in the text forces me to flex my theological muscles in that way. At best, the reading is possible. It is neither probable, nor needed.
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Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,
Von
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Hath God Said?
Exo 31:17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
To answer an objection here, the same thing applies to the young Earth translation of ‘day’, ‘evening’, and ‘morning’. This is why many of them say ‘twenty-four hour’ day… which I think is a bit overprecise, but gets at the same idea.