Going on with O'Brien's argument that the evening and the morning may simply
be the end and the beginning of an epoch, I read this in the Bible a couple
of years back and found it quite interesting.
Psalm 90:1-6
1. Lord, thou has been our dwelling place in all generations.
2. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed
the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art
God.
(A rememberance of God's creation)
3. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of
men.
(Mention of the fall)
4. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is
past, and as a watch in the night.
(Suggests that time moves differently for God than it does for us, and
not even consistantly so.)
5. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the
morning they are like grass which groweth up.
("them" and "they" are the children of men. And it gets very interesting
now...)
6. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is
cut down, and withereth.
That last verse is the showstopper, I think. For who would say that either
grass or men last only a day? There is another interpretation: that it
merely means that in the morning the grass is healthy. However, this
interpretation, allowing for "morning" to be taken literally, does not allow
"evening" to be taken literally because grass or any other grains are simply
not cut down, or harvested in the evening.
The conclusion, then, is that the interpretation of the verse must be taken
allegorically. This scripture is a prayer of Moses. Because it was Moses
who had the revelation of which Genesis is an account of, and Moses who is
the author of this prayer, I feel it safe to conclude that Moses is using
the terms "morning" and "evening" allegorically in both cases. Both the
Hebrew meaning of the word 'day' being "age or epoch" as cited by Kevin
O'Brien, and verse 4 of Psalm 90 prove that it is not necessary to interpret
the day of Genesis as being the 24 hour day common to literalist, young
earth interpretations. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the 24 hour
day interpretation is inconsistant with the text of the Bible.
Thank you,
Ami Chopine