From: allenroy (allenroy@peoplepc.com)
Date: Wed Oct 15 2003 - 01:01:51 EDT
bivalve wrote:
> Two additional difficulties that must be addressed in harmonizing Gen. 2:4 and following with Genesis 1:1-2:3:
>
> The use of day (yom) in 2:4 to refer to multiple days of chapter 1. The NIV harmonizes in its wording; other translations give a more literal rendition. Yom also occurs in 1:5 to mean not night. Declaring a 24 hour interpretation mandatory results in self-contradiction.
It has been understood forever that the word Yom can have more than one meaning. However, the use of the word Yom in Genesis 1 in connection with the ordinals and especially associated with the phrase "evening and morning" can only have one meaning and that is a single rotation of the planet day. In 2:4 and 1:5 the word Yom is not used with an ordinal nor with the evening/morning phrase, so one could expect that the word would NOT mean a single rotation of the planet.
> The naming of the animals. How many names did Adam give? How long did this take? Male and female humans exist on day 6 of chapter 1; if it is a 24 hour day, Adam had to name things very quickly.
Please note, 1) he name only the animals that God brought to him, not necessarily every animal that had been made. And 2), the list only includes "the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field." This does not include the "the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems," "creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals" (NIV) I'm not sure how many but we are talking hundreds rather than thousands.
> The point is not that one cannot try to harmonize the accounts, but that the harmonization that is necessary to make Genesis 1 a single week requires non-literal or non-obvious interpretations of Genesis 2.
Sorry, but it is a very obvious interpretation. One need only read two verbs as "had made" rather than just "made" and the whole thing harmonizes beautifully. All human language is flawed. God did NOT write the Bible himself. He did NOT dictate word for word to the prophets. He used flawed human beings writing in flawed human language to bring to us his truth and he expects us to be willing and able to see beyond the human flaws, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Allen
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