The following is an extract from a letter written in 1984 by Professor James Barr, who was at the time Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford. Please note that Professor Barr does not claim to believe that Genesis is literally true, he is just telling us, openly and honestly, what the language means.
Professor Barr said,
“Probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Gen. 1-11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that (a) creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience (b) the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story (c) Noah's flood was understood to be world-wide and extinguish all human and animal life except for those in the ark. Or, to put it negatively, the apologetic arguments which suppose the 'days' of creation to be long eras of time, the figures of years not to be chronological, and the flood to be a merely local Mesopotamian flood, are not taken seriously by any such professors, as far as I know.”
While I have no problem agreeing with Barr's conclusion that "as far as he knows" professors believe the 6 days to be 6 24-hour periods... I disagree with those professors.
The "clock" started clicking on the days of creation story, before the sun was placed in the heavens.
If a day in the creation story is wholly dependent upon the time it takes for Earth to revolve around the Sun, then we have a serious logical fallacy on our hands because there was no such thing as a "day" until well after it all started.
Peter touched on something that has great significance. He said there is simply no comparison between God's heavenly realm and our Earthly realm, when it comes to the matter of time.
Logically, it makes much more sense to say that the 6 "days" in which it took God to create the entire universe, were days that passed in His heavenly realm, and according to Peter, that could be an infinite amount of time from our perspective.
Just understanding that what takes place in Heaven and what takes place on Earth is incomparable, inasmuch as we are talking 2 different dimensions, goes far in helping answer some confusing questions.
Originally posted by RJHinds The following is an extract from a letter written in 1984 by Professor James Barr, who was at the time Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford. Please note that Professor Barr does not claim to believe that Genesis is literally true, he is just telling us, openly and honestly, what the language means.
Professor Barr said,
“Probably, so ...[text shortened]... by any such professors, as far as I know.”
http://christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c011.html
But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. (2 Peter 3:8 NLT)
I agree with what sumydid expressed about Gods heavenly realm time and our earthly time.
Also the light/Time travel problem is a problem. If young earth young universe we should be living in a universe only about 6k-10K lightyears across but I suspect it is larger and older than that.
Manny
PS: Not that I'm totally decided one way or the other at this point
Originally posted by sumydid While I have no problem agreeing with Barr's conclusion that "as far as he knows" professors believe the 6 days to be 6 24-hour periods... I disagree with those professors.
The "clock" started clicking on the days of creation story, before the sun was placed in the heavens.
If a day in the creation story is wholly dependent upon the time it take ...[text shortened]... e talking 2 different dimensions, goes far in helping answer some confusing questions.
The point is what the Hebrew text literally says. He is not saying that he or anyone else believes the text. He is just pointing out that those that know Hebrew well, do not dispute what the text is literally saying.
Now on the other hand, there are many Biblical scholars that believe it was not meant to be taken literally as 6 days with each consisting of 24 hours. This is the view you apparently hold. I hold to the view that it says what it says. So I take it literally.
Originally posted by RJHinds The point is what the Hebrew text literally says. He is not saying that he or anyone else believes the text. He is just pointing out that those that know Hebrew well, do not dispute what the text is literally saying.
Now on the other hand, there are many Biblical scholars that believe it was not meant to be taken literally as 6 days with each consisting ...[text shortened]... says what it says. So I take it literally.
HalleluYah !!! Praise the Lord! Holy! Holy! Holy!
I embrace our differences and love you all the more for it.
Creation Days - 24 Hour Days?
27 Sep '12 07:01
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