What Does The Word “Day” In Genesis Chapter 1 Mean?

What does the word “day” in Genesis Chapter 1 mean?

The creation account in Genesis uses the word day. This is a translation of the usual Hebrew word for a twenty-four-hour day. But Old Testament writers used the same word for a longer period of time also (for example, “the day of the Lord” in many of the prophetic books). Peter stated, With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day (2 Peter 3:8). Because of this, scholars suggest several different meanings for the word “day” in Genesis:

• six normal days of creation—God created all on each day’s list during a normal twenty-four-hour day with an “evening and morning,” either thousands of years ago or millions of years ago.
• six days of re-creation—God re-created the earth in a short period of time thousands of years ago, separated by a long time gap from the original creation millions of years before. That first creation may have taken long periods of time.
• six days of revelation—In sixdays God revealed His previous creation work to the writer of Genesis. Different creation events (which may or may not have taken long periods of time) were revealed on each of six days in the writer’s life.
• long periods of time—God created the world over long periods of time, but the account uses poetic language—“day,” “evening” and “morning”—to describe these periods of time.
• six special days separated by long periods of time—God created the world over long periods of time, but He used supernatural power at key moments in the long process.
• only a literary structure, no specific time—The six “days” describe God’s creation poetically. Days 1 and 4 relate to each other (light relates to specific sources of light), as do days 2 and 5 (water and sky to fish and birds), and days 3 and 6 (dry land to animals).