Quote:
Originally Posted by BobVigneault  "And there was evening and there was morning, the first 'yom'."
Man, that is clear teaching unless you speak in the rarified and hyper-abstruse language of the lawyer, the theologian, the rhetoricist. Moses said 'day'. Day means day. My four year old knows what a day is. None of the days in those verses mention 24 hours but 'yom' means 24 hours. Is it clear that Jonah was in the great fish for 3 24-hour periods or is that scripture unclear? |
Indeed yom means day. But that is not the issue. Look at the structure of the prose of Genesis 1 and note the parallels between days 1 & 4; 2 & 5; 3 & 6:
Day 1: Let there be light (1:3).
Day 4: Let there be lights (1:14).
Day 2: Let there be an expanse to separate water from water (1:6).
Day 5: Let the water teem with creatures and let birds fly above the earth (1:20).
Day 3: Let dry land appear (1:9); Let the land produce vegetation (1:11).
Day 6: Let the land produce living creatures (1:24); Let us make man (1:26); I give you every seed bearing plant...and every tree that has fruit with seed in it...for food (1:29).
Look at each section individually:
Day 1: Let there be light (1:3).
Day 2: Let there be an expanse to separate water from water (1:6).
Day 3: Let dry land appear (1:9); Let the land produce vegetation (1:11).
Ends with vegetation.
Day 4: Let there be lights (1:14).
Day 5: Let the water teem with creatures and let birds fly above the earth (1:20).
Day 6: Let the land produce living creatures (1:24); Let us make man (1:26); I give you every seed bearing plant...and every tree that has fruit with seed in it...for food (1:29).
Ends with man. Is this important? Yes when you consider the gods of Israel's neighbours - Canaanite Baal and Babylonian Marduk.