Where did this water come from? Genesis does not tell us. In verse 6 (day 2) God separated the waters. Either way, this is not what the text says literally. Or perhaps it means that, at the assumed point of observation, darkness finally came. Perhaps verse 4 is not intended to be sequentially precise. The literary sequence implies that darkness was separated only some time after light existed, but light is always separated from darkness they are distinct by definition. God separated light from darkness (verse 4). However, such questions try to squeeze precision out of an account that wasn’t designed for it. But what did God do in the afternoon? Did he continue to create more light, or did he rest? Did he rest in the evening, like he did on the seventh day? Even an ancient Israelite could have wondered. Therefore we might conclude that creation would have begun with morning. God began the creation by calling for light, and there is no other way for light to appear than instantly. It does not tell us whether the stars existed before verse 16, or whether they simply became visible. It does not give us the physics of how he separated light and darkness, land and sea it is not designed to tell us whether he created aquatic insects and land-dwelling insects on the same day. Genesis 1 does not describe how God created. Perhaps the creation story was not meant to be interpreted literally. However, when we understand the Bible this way, we are not interpreting it literally. When verse 14 says, Let there be sun and moon, it really means, Let earth’s surface have a clear view of the sun and moon, or perhaps, Let the sky be clear. When God called for light, he meant light at a specific point on earth, not light in general, because light already existed in outer space. However, if we say that the account is written from a limited perspective, we admit that the account is not abstract truth. Since half of earth is in darkness when the other side is in day, the terms evening and morning indicate a perspective not only limited to earth in general, but to a specific point on earth. The creation account is written from an earthly perspective. One conservative suggestion observes that the Hebrew word for “made” could mean “had made” - God may have made the sun, moon and stars billions of years earlier, and God caused them to be visible on the fourth day of creation. So what really happened on the fourth day of creation? But we are told in verse 4 that God had separated light from darkness on the first day and the words “evening and morning” show that there was already a separation between night and day. He made the sun, moon and stars to separate light from darkness (Gen. We can start with day four as an example: On the fourth day, God commanded that there be lights in the sky to separate day and night. The literal view says, Believe it because that is what is written.īut is that really what is written? Let us look at the evidence in Scripture. The literal view is simple: Genesis 1 is telling us that God created everything in six evenings and six mornings - ordinary-length days. Are those six “days” to be understood literally, as six 24-hour days, or are they symbolic - figures of speech? Bible-believing Christians disagree on this topic, often with great emotion, sometimes condemning all who do not understand Genesis 1 in the same way as they do. The first chapter of the Bible says that God made heaven and earth and every living thing in six days. Sabbatical is also used as an adjective to refer specifically to the rules governing the observance of the Sabbath, as in “sabbatical laws.The Torah: Genesis 1: Are the Six Days of Creation Literal or Figurative? That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof īut in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. The Old Testament refers to God’s “day of rest” most famously in Genesis, but Sabbath referring to an entire year of rest is mentioned in Leviticus (25:3-5): Sabbaton itself traces to the Hebrew word shabbāth, meaning “rest.” We trace the origins of both sabbatical and Sabbath to the Greek word sabbaton. Because of this scholarly context, we may easily miss what is hiding in plain sight: that sabbatical is related to Sabbath, which refers to the Biblical day of rest, or the seventh day. Traditionally, this occurs every seventh year. We tend to think of sabbatical in academic terms, as a school year free from teaching duties that can be devoted to research, travel, and writing. The History of Sabbatical and Sabbath: Take a Break
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