How Long was Creation Day Two?
According to the Bible, creation Day Two was a one period of
dark and light - an evening and a
morning. It followed Day One when Elohim finished creating the heavens
and the earth, all of it
(Hebrew 'et'). During the transitory state (mayim), the earth was
formless (tohu bohu) and dark.
Then Elohim dithered over the surface (face - panyim) of the formless
earth and continually
commanded light (owr) to continually be. It was then that matter began
to receive its form as a
relation with light. Indeed, we find that atoms are filled with
internal, jittering light. Evidently,
the properties of atoms are relational, a relationship with light.
Day Two is unique. Only on Day Two
did God NOT say that the events of this day were good.
Perhaps this is because natural forces worked on this day.
Furthermore, this day's activities
would someday be partly responsible for the flood.
Genesis 1:6 says that God
continually commanded a raqiya to causally divide mayim from
mayim. The word mayim can mean the transitory state (as on Day One) or
water. Clearly mayim
refers to water on Day Two. The raqiya continually divided waters from
waters.
Verse seven says God continued
to make the raqiya that causally and continually divided the
water under the raqiya from the water above the raqiya.
Verse eight says that God
continued to call the raqiya: shamayim (sky). It was evening and
morning, Day Two.
Interpretation: Day Two did not
produce brand-new matter like Day One. It did not organize this
matter into living plants; new heavenly bodies; fishes; land animals
and humans like the other
creation days. Moses used the word raqiya five time for this day, that
the raqiya separated the waters.
What is a raqiya? A Greek king
at Alexandria commissioned the translation of the Old
Testament in the 3rd century BC (the Septuagint). Alexandria
was a major center of
Greek culture. It was famous for its great library and museum
(university) for philosophical
studies. Unlike the Babylonians, the Greek philosophers sought for
natural explanations for the
heavenly motions. According to Plato, eight stereoma (crystalline
spheres) rotated around the
earth. He postulated that seven stereoma moved the Sun, Moon and
planets around. The stars were attached to
the eighth. Eudoxus calculated that 27 spherical stereoma were
necessary to quantify the strange
planetary motions. Callipus required 34 spheres. Some philosophers
wondered whether the
invisible stereoma were real. Aristotle
reasoned
that
if
crystalline spheres could mathematically
describe the motions of the planets and stars, they must be real. His
system required 55 invisible
stereoma. The outermost stereoma supposedly was studded with
stars. The mathematical
cosmology of that era accepted multiple, solid, rotating, crystalline
spheres to which the planets
and stars were attached. In agreement with the cosmology of their era,
the Jewish scholars
of 2250 years ago rendered raqiya as stereoma. Over the
following centuries,
Jewish (and later Christian) scholars
could argue that the Bible authenticated their science. After all, the
Greek Old Testament used
the scientific word for crystalline spheres, stereoma. * Later the
Latin translators continued the
tradition by rendering raqiya as firmamentum, a solid sky. A millennium
later, English translators
rendered raqiya as firmament. Some modern translators use the word
expanse for raqiya, since
solid skies are no longer scientific. Expanse means wide spaces. Is
'expanse' another attempt to
interpret the Bible with the science of the day?
How would a contemporary of Moses
understand raqiya, in the grammar and
thinking of their
era, not science. Raqiya is the noun form of the verb raqa: to
spread
out, hammer out or pound
out. We often form nouns from verbs. 'To run' is a verb. The runner is
a noun. 'To hammer' is a
verb. A hammer is the tool that hammers. To spread is a verb. Spread
can also be a noun, such as
a bed spread, a banquet spread or a large ranch. Since raqa means to
spread out, then surely the
noun raqiya is the place that is spreading out. Indeed, this
interpretation fits the text perfectly.
The waters above the spreading place were separated from the waters
below the spreading place.
What was the name of this spreading place? God named it shamayim. The
Hebrew word
shamayim refers to both the atmospheric sky and the starry sky.
The surface
of the Saturnian moon Enceladus seems to be entirely bright ice. Near
the south pole,
the ice is cut with deep parallel cracks and ridges. Massive thermal
geysers are presently jetting
out from the cracks. The central part of the plumes exceed escape
velocity and visibly extend out
435 kilometers into space. The jets are presently forming a vast ring
of ice and dust in space. The
plumes also contain methane and several carbon gases. Some of water and
carbon molecules are
forming a thin nascent atmosphere. (The Cassini spacecraft's
magnetometer detected an
atmospheric tail when it passed Enceladus). Evidently, the atmosphere
and the ice ring are both
accelerated outward by hot gases from undersea volcanism. We could
describe Enceladus' jets as
a raqiya forming an atmosphere that is separating water above from
water below. The tiny moon
Phoebe orbits retrograde in a highly inclined orbit far outside the
other Saturnian moons. In 2009,
astronomers discovered that Phoebe has a thin ring of ice along its
orbit. Evidently Phoebe once
had hot geysers that ejected water into space. Photo credit NASA from the Cassini
spacecraft looking towards the south pole of a crescent Enceladus.
Evidence from ancient rocks indicates that the primordial Earth
was warm, not frozen - like
modern Enceladus. Perhaps before the earth's atmosphere formed, water
propelled by geothermal
gases, ejected into space. Some of the emerging gases also formed the
Earth's atmosphere.
Someone might argue, this is impossible since the escape velocity of
the earth is 11.2 kilometers
per second. Christians should always interpret earth-history with
biblical statements, not science.
No contemporary of a biblical author had a scientific mind set. Indeed,
no one during the biblical
age could even imagine thinking like modern scientists. Three times the
Hebrew Bible states that
the Earth spreads out in unbroken continuity. The continents only fit
together on a tiny globe.
Subduction is contradicted by the layered, undisturbed sediments in the
ocean trenches. If the
Earth continues to get bigger, spread out, how big was it on Day Two?
(Job
38:4
- 9)
Biblical physics allows one to accept
simple, visible evidence. The Bible states that the entire
creation is phthora, fundamentally changing. Not a single one of
billions of ancient galaxies
shines with the light frequencies of modern atoms. Indeed, the atomic
light frequencies accelerate
throughout cosmic history. Primordial
atoms must have been minuscule
ratios of their modern
sizes to emit such low frequencies. Why can't we measure this, if atoms
are continually
expanding? Modern scientific measuring units depend on the assumption
that atoms are
perpetual motion engines. Scientist cannot measure relational
changes
since their measuring units
and their mathematical 'constants' would all shift with the
relationally changing atoms. Yet we
can see the past back to the creation era and visibly every bit of
matter keeps changing its
properties relationally.
How long was Day Two? The
formation of an atmosphere and ice rings in space would take
geological ages today. Yet, according to the text, Day Two was one
period of light and dark.
How long was that day? We have no direct way to quantify the duration
of the second day. The
biblical definition for a day did not come until Day Four. Furthermore, the definition is cyclical
and uses the word raqiya with respect to the Sun, Moon and stars. The
Hebrew of Genesis 1:17
require non linear days, seasons and years. It is important to
remember that during Moses' day,
everyone on Earth believed that ancient days were long and later days
kept on shortening.
The visible evidence supports the words of the Bible. Not only do we
see that atoms accelerate
their clock frequencies, but we also see how galaxies formed. Newton and Einstein are both
falsified by how billions of galaxies visibly formed. Visibly, galactic
orbits and atomic clocks
accelerated together as billions of galaxies grew from tiny seeds to
great spread out, local, growth
spirals. Since orbits and atomic clocks always
speed up, then reasonably Day Two must have been a geological age. Yet
it was also one
period of light and dark. Think about it.
* Colossians 2:5 uses the Greek word stereoma, translated steadfast.
Translators also rendered
the related word stereow with established in the faith, strengthened,
steadfast.
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This document is under a Creative Commons License by Victor
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Last modified on January 14, 2010