The Days of Genesis: Major Interpretations

Major Interpretations of Creation "Days" in Genesis One

As Bible students and Christian scientists try to harmonize the true facts of science with the Bible, and avoid both pseudo-science and biblical misinterpretation, a multitude of interpretations of the Creation "days" of Genesis 1 has emerged. So that you’ll be able to identify them when you see them, we present here a synopsis of the more popular views.

1. The Consecutive Twenty-Four Hour View. According to this view, God created the world and all known life forms in six consecutive, literal days, as we count time today on earth (cf. Exodus 20:11). Most proponents of this model also argue for a young earth (perhaps 10,000 years or less). One potential problem for this view is in astronomy. If the light from a star is 10 million light years away, then that light presumably takes 10 million years to reach the earth, and we are witnessing ancient history. God could have created the light in such a manner to appear much older than it really is, but how does one explain star explosions from distant places in the universe? Do astronomers witness explosions from stars that never existed? Do these explosions somehow exceed the known speed of light? Or is it possible that the universe is much older than young-earth creationists think it is?

2. The Literary View. According to this theory, Genesis 1 is a metaphorical statement of praise more than a literal scientific accounting of what actually happened. Proponents point to the near-poetic literary features in the majestic account, with parallels elsewhere of poetic descriptions of creation (cf. Ps. 104; Isa. 40; Job 38). Ronald F. Youngblood cites the literary symmetry of the chapter’s arrangement and argues that it is "partly literary and only partly chronological" (The Book of Genesis: Introduction and Commentary, p. 26). Others argue that the chapter is a deliberate literary adaptation of a familiar ancient Near Eastern "pagan" version of creation — an intentional parody of idolatry and a defense of the one true God who created all things (see Youngblood, The Genesis Debate, pp. 46,98; cf. the rebuttal of Geisler and Brooks, When Skeptics Ask, pp. 180-182).

3. The "Creation Day" View. According to this theory, we must not impose our concept of a 24-hour day on the beginning of time. since that would amount to an anachronism of the highest magnitude. God created the world and all life in six "creation days," however defined. Accordingly, the implied ambiguity and/or flexibility in the days is seen in Gen. 1:14, where the heavenly bodies do not mark time as we know it until Day Four. Gen. 2:4 begins a zoom-lens description of man’s place in creation, all of which occurs "in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven." Furthermore, God rested on the seventh day, but there is no closure to it in the familiar manner: "And there was evening and there was morning, a __ day." Moreover, John 5:17 and Hebrews 4:3-11 could imply continuity to the seventh day "rest." A modern variant of this view is seen in The Science of God (1997), in which Gerald Schroeder uses Einstein’s theory of relativity to argue for the com-patibility of an ancient universe model with the six-day timetable of Genesis 1. He holds that the six, literal 24-hour days of creation must be measured by a universal time clock at the beginning of creation in an expanding universe – not by time as we count it. Moreover, he maintains that the created progression of Genesis 1 fits precisely with the appearance of conditions and life forms in the order that can be known by science. Mathematical equations are supplied in abundance to show how seven literal creation days could correspond with eons of time within the framework of the theory of relativity (cf. II Pet. 3:8).

4. The Progressive Creation View. This theory argues for six non-consecutive days of creative activity, with eons of time separating each day. This view interprets the language of Genesis 1 to specify "one day," "a second day," "a third day," etc.

5. The Revelation View. Proponents of this view argue that events were revealed to Moses on six consecutive days, and each day represents what was revealed, not what actually happened, in a 24-hour period. Duane Garrett argues that the seven days of creation have a 6 + 1 heptadic structure, which is found elsewhere in apocalyptic literature. In Revelation 6:1-8:1; 8:2-11:19; and 16:1- 21, "the pattern is of six related events followed by a seventh": 7 seals, 7 trumpets, and 7 bowls of wrath, with the seventh component of each series fundamentally different from the preceding six. Garrett continues, "But there is more in parallel here than form alone. Both are alike in intention because both give the divine view of the outer limits of history. Revelation gives the heavenly view of human history with a view toward its culmination. In Genesis 1, the focus is the initiation of the world and its history. I suggest that Gen. 1:1-2:3 is visionary and revelatory and that Moses, the premier prophet in the Old Testament, is the direct author of this material." Garrett finds the 6 + 1 pattern in one other place, in Exodus 24:16ff., where Moses ascends Mt. Sinai. On the first six days, the cloud covers the mountain. On the seventh day, Moses goes up into the cloud. Consequently, Garrett argues that the days of Genesis 1 are "seven days of divine revelation to Moses" (Rethinking Genesis, pp. 192-3).

6. The Day-Age View. According to this theory, the seven days comprise a biblical chronolog, and each day represents a prophetic picture of the distant past — a real though unfocused gleam of divine truth in which a "day" corresponds to an age of vast activity. Just as prophetic depictions of the distant future horizon use figurative chronological markers, is it possible that Genesis 1 is a "prophetic" summary of the distant past? After comparing Genesis 1 to the fossil record, Frederick Godet argues, "If it was the purpose of God to cause Moses to contemplate in an abridged form the principle phases through which the work of creation passed in its gradual development, would not the best way of giving him an idea of it have been to paint each period in a single picture, which should represent in one grand scene the stage which the work had then reached? Each of these pictures was to the eye of Moses one day. . . Thus were passed before his eyes these six pictures, representing the most characteristic phases of the entire work. He has preserved for us a memorial of these phases, but without having himself penetrated into their meanings in detail, any more than the prophets were able clearly to understand the intuitions excited in them by the Divine Spirit" (Studies in the Old Testament, p. 130).

7. The Gap View. According to this view, Day One of creation week does not begin until verse 3, and a gap of eons of time fits between verse 1 and verse 3. Many advocates of this theory speculate that life existed and was destroyed before the earth became "waste and void" (1:2). For example, David Lipscomb writes, "I could go over every argument presented to definitely fix the years of the earth and show that data are unreliable and the conclusion uncertain; yet it can be said with much certainty the time since the heavens and the earth were created has been long. I believe life had existed on the earth previous to the six days’ work of Genesis 1. The Bible nowhere contradicts this. Man and the higher order of animals and plants did not exist before this." (Gospel Advocate, Feb. 2, 1899).