Re: "DAY"
Ralph Nielsen (nielsen@uidaho.edu)
Thu, 22 May 1997 10:58:53 -0700
>(DAVE 5/21)
>I don't know if the "day" mentioned in Genesis is an actual 24 hour period
>or something longer. I know many have submitted that Peter's reference in 2
>Peter 3:8 means that the "day" in Genesis is 1000 years, but I don't think
>that is an appropriate conclusion to make just from this passage.
>
RALPH NIELSEN
The word "day" (Hebrew yom) is a 24-hour day. In the ancient creation myth
in Genesis 1 the universe was created in six 24-hour days.
In the forgery called 2 Peter the writer is inventing excuses for the fact
that Jesus did not show up "soon", as he is supposed to have promised, and
as Paul made very specific (1 Thess. 4:15-17). So he borrows from the
psalmist the notion that a day might be as a 1,000 years. But that does not
explain away what Paul said, does it?
The problem with creationists, both Xian and Muslim, is that they imagine
that their "holy" books are scientific accounts, rather than ancient
theological speculation.