Overlapping creation days in Genesis 1?

XXX wrote:
> ... But aren't we stuck with a problem as day five records the creation of
> EVERY bird on that day, prior to the evening/morning refrain and the next
> creative activity? Even if we grant flying insects (which is fair), the modern
> bird certainly doesn't stretch back beyond the first land life.

PR: The word "every" (Heb. "kol") may also be translated "of all sorts" or "all
kinds of", without necessarily implying totality. If God uses evolution it is
clear that many plant species (in the biological sense) originated after the
third epoch, and many water and flying species after the fifth epoch. Also, the
Gen.1 text clearly implies that the few types of plants and animals (e.g.
"flying creatures", Heb. "^oph") explicitly mentioned are meant as
representative groups of plants or animals, but by no means as exhaustively
including all possible species to which the term might apply. It is clear that
"^oph" includes insects (flying ones only), pterosaurs, birds (flying ones
only), bats, all of which, except insects, first appeared after first
terrestrial animals in day 6. In the Hebrew, such designations usually stand in
the singular, used as collective terms valid for any or all of the species
included, e.g. in Gen.1:20 for flying creatures, or in v.28 for "fish" (which
would include all kinds of seafood and sea monsters).

In Gen.1, the specification "every" (Heb. "kol") is used only in v.21 in day 5
(referring to "living souls" and "flying creatures"), and 5 times in day 6
(referring to the "creepers", "plant", "earth", "tree", "animal" and
"everything"). Only v.21, dealing with the 5th day, is relevant in our context
of overlapping days. But the final confirmation "and it was so", which
apparently confirms that everything specified for the particular period had
already (at least partly) occurred, is only found for days 2, 3, 4, and 6, but
not for day 5. There is no need at all to expect all species of "living souls"
in the water and "flying creatures" to have appeared during epoch 5, and not
later. For the plants mentioned as originating in day 3, the text does confirm,
"and it was so", but the specification "every" is not found there; so it just
indicates that the earth began sprouting _some_ kinds of plants, such as big
coastal algae and small terrestrial plants, while others, such as big
terrestrial plants came later.

Interestingly, the last instance of "and it was so" in v.30 covers the creation
of humans, including their mission to "fill the earth and subdue it" in v.28,
indicating that they did so before the 6th day was completed in v.31 (also
suggesting that Adam came later, during the 7th day).

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)