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HOUSMAIL HM085 (Revised) 8 November
2001 HOW LONG IS A
“YOM” There
is often great confusion about what is meant by the word "DAY" in
Genesis Chapters 1 & 2. Part of this confusion arises from geologists who interpret
the "geological evidence" which they claim to find in the rocks, as
"proof" of great age for the earth. Often this can be as much as 4,500
MILLION years! However,
we should also be aware that today there is a very great volume of published literature from "young earth" geologists who present very
logical sounding arguments as to why the speculations of the "Long Age
experts" about the "evidence", may be completely wrong! For
unskilled laymen, the scientific discussions about the geology may often be
quite unintelligible -- but the Creation story, as told in the first few
chapters of Genesis, is written in very simple language. We are being told
that the work was accomplished in six literal "earth-days", each with
an evening and a morning! And it is easy to see that this "young
earth" interpretation fits the language of Genesis far better than the
"long age" version. THE
MEANING OF THE HEBREW WORD "YOM" The
situation is not made any easier by "Bible Students" who seem to
have been influenced by the "long age" geologists to conclude that
the earth must be far older than 6000 years. As a result, the race is on to
re-interpret Genesis (or should that be compromise the integrity of Genesis?)
to accommodate the long ages foisted on us by the "experts"! The
attempt to accommodate the Scriptures to fit "long age
speculations" tends to revolve around the meaning of the Hebrew word
"YOM". (usually translated "day",
meaning a literal earth day -- but occasionally with other meanings such as
"time", "daily", "year", etc.) You
don't need to be a Hebrew Scholar to use a Strong's or Young's Concordance,
to study the use of the word. But there are serious problems when amateurs
insist that they have thereby conclusively proved from Scripture,
that the Genesis days are NOT literal "Earth-day" 24-hour periods,
but much longer times. Depending on who you hear it from, speculation about
that ranges from "1000-year days" to "long-age days" of
millions, or even billions of years. Of
course, it is certainly true that there are places in the Bible where the
word "YOM" clearly does not mean a literal
"earth-day" of 24 hours. That is no different to our own language.
English also sometimes uses "day" that way. There is even one
place where that is true in Genesis Ch 2. (See Genesis
2:4) But that does NOT mean that we may then make
the huge jump required to conclude that ALL the other "days"
of Genesis are NOT "Earth-days"! That is a very improper use of the
art of linguistics! For
simpler souls, the context in the Genesis creation story seems
to point us clearly to literal "earth-days"! ("The
evening and the morning were the first day" ..... etc.) And there are things described there that become very confusing
if the days are not "earth-days". e.g. How did the trees, shrubs,
grass, and flowers, pollinate and reproduce for all those millions of years,
without the sun until the "long age fourth day"; or without the
bees and birds who transfer the pollen, until the fifth "day"; or
without the animals through whose digestive systems some seeds must pass in
order to germinate, until the sixth "day"? (Were you there?) "YOM"
IN EXODUS 20:8-11 and 31:12-17. "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." Clearly
these days in Exodus are "earth-days" of 24 hours each! In the
context, NOTHING else will do! Shall
we then presume to change the meaning of the identical word in Exodus 20:11 & It
doesn't fit at all -- does it? May I suggest that to reason that way about
the meaning of a "day", would be confused "logic" of the
worst sort! (And before you rush to answer -- Were you there?) WHAT
TO DO WITH THE "EVIDENCE" For
those without geological or scientific training there is great danger in
forming dogmatic conclusions based on inadequate information. Hey! -- even
the geologists fight amongst themselves about some of the things which lead
some of them to conclude that the earth is billions of years old! So
here is a bit more information for those unskilled in Hebrew! Only a very tiny minority of professional linguists agree with the amateurs
who try to shoehorn "long YOMs" into Genesis! But what chance does
the layman have of deciding between them and the vast majority of other
linguists who reject their conclusions? Or of proving them wrong? (Were you there?) The
one thing we can be certain of is that the information currently in the hands
of the scientists is incomplete and inadequate. It has changed remarkably in
recent decades. But, we don't have it all yet, by a long way! What we do know
is that in the face of regular new discoveries and theories (yes theories!) "interpretations" of the information seem to change
as rapidly as the information itself! Yesterday's textbooks are soon
"out of date” and discarded! But
one thing we can be certain of -- when the evidence is all in, God will be
vindicated, and Genesis will be shown clearly as an accurate record of what
actually happened at Creation! And I suspect that some of God's answers to
our questions, may surprise us all! -- "young earth" and "long
age" alike! Does
the earth indeed have the appearance of great age? Does it look older than 6000 years? Tell me -- you who have lived for such a
comparatively short time, -- and whose experience is limited to your own
fallible education and tiny "earth view" -- by what standard do you
judge that? WERE YOU THERE
WHEN GOD LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE EARTH? (Job 38:4) MAY GOD PRESERVE US FROM THE FOLLY OF DOGMATISM Allon |