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Let me attempt to address some issues people wrestle with as they read Genesis 1, 2, and 3:

How long is a “yôm” day?

In the English language, the word day means 24 hours – always. But the Old Testament wasn’t written in English. Genesis was written in Hebrew, and the Hebrew word  “yôm” can have several meanings. The word “yôm” has to be defined by the context in which it appears. 

In the first chapter of Genesis “yôm” is generally used along with the phrases there was evening and there was morning, thus defining it as the time that morning and evening measure. But there is still another variable in this mix. Days, weeks, years, and seasons weren’t specifically created and/or defined until the fourth day when God created the sun, moon, and smaller lights in the sky (stars & planets). So before the fourth day, and possibly including at least the first part of the fourth day, the actual time period can’t be specifically defined by the earth’s rotation and when the sun shines on a portion of the earth and when it doesn’t.

On the first day, God created light and called it “Day.” He then separated it from the darkness. I can imagine him moving from one into the other – for whatever that thought is worth. This is one of my unanswered questions.

Notice in Genesis 2:17 God told Adam if he ate from the tree of good and evil he would surely die on that day. We know from Genesis 3 that Adam and Eve ate from the tree, and we also know they eventually they died, but not on the same 24-hour day that they ate the apple. So “day” (yôm) in this verse turned out to be several hundred years.

A second creation account?

I’ve often heard Bible critics argue that there are two creation accounts in the Bible, the second account in chapter 2. But a close examination of the Scriptures will quickly debunk that theory. Genesis 1 is the chronological order God used as he created everything. Genesis 2 elaborates on what happened on day 6 when he created man. Genesis doesn’t speak of God creating trees all over again, he simply planted them in the Garden of Eden which he established for Adam. He brought the animals to Adam to name, he didn’t re-create them. Then he created Eve for Adam.

Photo credit: The image above is taken from an illustration in my picture book, The Creation.