"DAY" (to Farrell)

David Court (hoover1@NETCOM.CA)
Fri, 30 May 1997 20:51:26 -0400 (EDT)

(DAVE 5/22) Yoel: Agreed - I believe this is his purpose here as well.
Going back to the Genesis "day" then, can the same inference be applied?
Could this "day" be longer than 24 hours? It depends on whose "perspective"
the account is coming from - a God whose concept of "day" is (or could be) a
very long time, or a human. Even for us, the idea of "day" can have several
meanings - I could say "In my grandfather's day...." and mean much more than
a 24-hour time period, and not even be time specific.

TILL
So Dave again ignores what has been pointed out before on this list.

>Exodus 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.
>9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
>10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to Yahweh your God; you shall not do
any work--you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your
livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.
>11 For in six daysYahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is
in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the sabbath
day and consecrated it.

Is the word "day" being used in this passage in the sense of a 24-hour
period or an undetermined period of time?

(DAVE 5/30) Farrell: It appears here that they are.

Farrell
The reason that verse 11 gives
for Yahweh's consecration of the seventh day of the week is that Yahweh
created the heaven, earth, sea, and everything in them in six days, and so
he rested on the 7th day, blessed it, and consecrated it. The passage makes
no sense unless the six days of creation are understood to be six literal days.

(DAVE 5/30) Farrell: Of course I don't disagree with you here - but this
doesn't eliminate the possibility that the days in Genesis may not have been
literal - there is no argument that they may have been "understood" (as you
say) to be six literal days - our dilemna is not what was "understood" to be
meant by "day", but what was actually meant.

Your conclusions are not as absolute here as you infer, but your comments
are good ones.

Regards.

Dave.

"atheism: the denial of the existence of God, particularly with regard to
theistic formulations; godlessness in belief or as a guide to conduct"
- Webster's