hich usage did Moses intend in the first passages of Genesis? Better yet, what meaning did God intend to convey through Moses? Many have come to believe that interpreting those creative days as long periods is a relatively modern phenomenon dictated by the recent findings of science, i.e. sedimentation rates, radioactive decay rates, a vast and expanding universe, and so forth, but such may not be the case. Some of the early church fathers took their cues from Scripture alone without the benefit of all the scientific information available today. Ross argues that Irenaeus, Origen, Basil, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas, to name a few, argued that the days of creation must have been long periods of time solely from their understanding of the biblical text. (1) There are some today, however, who advocate that the creation days in Genesis were strictly 24 hours in duration. Henry Morris in The Genesis Record states, ?... the Biblical record itself makes it plain that the days of creation are literal days, not long indefinite ages, If he (Moses) wished to convey the idea of long geological ages, he could surely have done it far more clearly and effectively in other words than in those which he selected.? (2) Perhaps in anticipation of future misunderstanding, God carefully defined His terms. The very first time He used the word ?day? (Hebrew ?yom?), he (Moses) defined it as the ?light?, to distinguish it from the ?darkness? called ?night.? Having separated the day and night, God completed His first day's work. ?The evening and the morning were the first day.? This same formula is used at the conclusion of each of the six days, so it could seem obvious that the duration of each of the days, including the first, was the same. Furthermore, the ?day? was the ?light? time, when God did His work; the darkness was the ?night? time when God did no work--nothing new was created between the ?evening? and ?morning? of each day.The Ryrie Study Bible follo...
