Overlapping creation days in Genesis 1?

The person who had asked me (off-line) about "Genesis 1 on ocean and atmosphere"
(cf. my answer which I sent to the list on 16 Feb 2006 21:52:47 +0100) now asked
me another Genesis 1 question:

> I've another query for you: How do we view the days? As consecutive
> or overlapping? It would seem that we must view them as overlapping
> on nature's behalf, but the text doesn't seem quite that way with the
> evening/morning refrain. What do you make of it?

And my answer:

I view the creation days as both consecutive and overlapping, in the following
sense: Each day stands for a first appearance of the most characteristic aspects
of a period in Earth's history (1 - light, 2 - water cycle, 3 - continents and
plants, 4 - clear oxygen atmosphere, 5 - sentient animals, 6 - terrestrial
animals and humans). The beginnings of these characteristics were clearly
sequential. But each of these characteristics persisted from its first
appearance until today (e.g. continued evolution of new plant and animal taxa),
and in this sense the days overlap.

The evening/morning refrain need not conflict with such consecutive and
overlapping epochs. The expression "there was evening [^erev] and there was
morning [boqer]" requires neither 24-hour days nor strict separation between the
"days". For 24-hour days, the sequence would be wrong, as the refrain stands at
the end, rather than at the beginning of the description of the corresponding
day, although the Hebrews' day began with the evening. A possible translation,
"a transition (twilight, mixing between two states) and a dawning (breaking
through of the daylight, dawning of a new epoch)", is compatible with epochs.

The Hebrew usage of a day beginning with the preceding evening may have
originated with the idea of preparing for a festival: "The day is considered to
begin in the morning; but in regard to the festivals and appointed times, the
Torah ordains that they shall be observed also on the night of the preceding
day" (U. Cassuto, Genesis, I, p. 29). Thus, the evening looks forward to the
next day. The "twilight" of an earlier epoch may gradually merge into the
"dawning" of the subsequent one.

But clearly, the main reason for this interpretation of "^ereb" and "boqer" is
the fact that each of these creation "days" must - by reason of what happened in
them - be long periods of time, rather than 24-hour days. Therefore, the refrain
must have a corresponding, figurative interpretation.

Peter

-- 
Dr. Peter Ruest, CH-3148 Lanzenhaeusern, Switzerland
<pruest@dplanet.ch> - Biochemistry - Creation and evolution
"..the work which God created to evolve it" (Genesis 2:3)