For a discussion of the Sabbath and how the Old Testament Sabbaths (rests)
fall short of fully representing God's Sabbath rest I recommend reading
Hebrews 4. There we see that God rested because He was done. He didn't go
back to work again.
An additional comment on your argument: If we use the meaning of week in
the Jewish calendar to determine what God's creation week was, we should
conclude that God began creating the universe at sunset on Saturday. How
is that possible? Furthermore he would have finished the creation and
begun his Sabbath rest at sunset on Friday. By that time, of course, there
was a sun, but if the sun was setting when He finished work, we have to
ask where. For whose time zone was God's clock set?
Gordon Brown
Department of Mathematics
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0395
On Mon, 15 Mar 1999, Allen Roy wrote:
> > From: David Campbell <bivalve@mailserv0.isis.unc.edu>
> > As the use of "day" (yom) in Genesis 2:4 conflicts with that in 1:1-2:3
> if
> > a 24 hour interpretation is forced upon both, the professor was not
> taking
> > the text out of context, whereas the student was. Another passage in the
> > Pentateuch requiring a non-24 hour rendition is the description of the
> year
> > of Jubilee-it follows a day of 49 years.
>
> I agree that the meaning of day in 2:4 is different than the use of the
> word in 1:1-2:3. Taken in context, 2:4 is obviously used figuratively.
> Just because the figurative meaning of the word is used in 2:4, that does
> not mean that every other use of that word, if even in the same sentence,
> must mean exactly the same thing. For instance: 'The other day, I felt as
> if I was living in the day of my fathers.'
>
> I understand that a literal translation of the Hebrew of the KJV phrase
> "And the evening and the morning were the first day" would read "evening
> was, morning was, day one." That seems to clearly indicate one rotation of
> the planet.
>
> Then we must also take into consideration the context of the rest of the
> Bible. In Exodus 20:11 it says, "For in six days the Lord made heaven and
> earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day." If
> the seventh "day" represents all the time since the end of the "6th day" of
> many thousands of years, then the Jews have been foolishly keeping the
> Sabbath every seven literal days. And who cares if Sunday is comming. If
> we are going to be consistant we must be consistant. We must never ever
> work for it is the Sabbath until the coming of the Lord.
>
> Or, we can be consistant and accept the week as 7 literal rotations of the
> planet both then and now.
>
> The professor took 2 Peter 3:8 out of context. This text stresses the
> timelessness of God. The Creator can do in a day the work of a thousand
> years, and a thousand years may be considered by Him as only one day. It
> does not define the length of a day of Creation.
>
> Allen
>