From: bivalve (bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com)
Date: Wed Oct 15 2003 - 15:41:05 EDT
Allen wrote >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.<
Yom in connection with ordinals also occurs in the phrase "on the third day", which is an Old Testament idiom for "soon" (see especially Hosea 6, which would imply a mandatory 3 day waiting period for forgiveness if ordinal plus yom really implied a 24 hour day). Yom in connection with "evening and morning" occurs only in Genesis 1 and thus does not prove anything one way or the other. On the other hand, yom without ordinal can mean a regular 24 hour day.
Both of these arguments are also rather peculiar in that they claim that figurative language is more restricted in its use of words than literal usage. Context and knowledge of the real world, not grammar, are what indicate figurative usage. I strongly suspect that these purported grammatical rules about yom were "discovered" post hoc in attempt to justify a 24 hour interpretation (I know that Allen is not making them up; I am referring to their origin). In Dembski's metaphor, it is painting the target around the arrow after you shoot it.
I asked >> 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.<<
Allen replied >Please note, 1) he named 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.<
There are thousands of species of large mammal and bird (roughly what seems to be included in those categories). If we assume only 200 taxa were under consideration, and assume that Adam started naming at midnight between day 5 and 6 and Eve was created at midnight between day 6 and 7 (thus maximizing time and minimizing names), then we have 7.2 minutes per name, which is rather fast, especially assuming that the naming involves thought rather than simply random combinations of syllables.
Although interpreting all the animals here as a rather limited set is possible, it raises problems for insisting that all the animals must be exhaustive a few chapters later when we get to the Flood narrative.
However, this is still missing the basic point: A one-week interpretation of Genesis 1 has weaknesses as well as strengths based on the text alone. Expecting Genesis 1 to principally convey scientific information has major weaknesses, because science is not what the Bible is about.
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
University of Alabama
Biodiversity & Systematics
Dept. Biological Sciences
Box 870345
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
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