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Explanation

24-Hour Days

The days described in Genesis 1 are consecutive 24-hour periods of time. This is indicated by the phrase “evening and morning” and the coupling of the Hebrew word yom with a number.

Day-Age

The days of Genesis are a chronological description of the remote past, where each “day” corresponds to a long period of time.

Progressive Creation

Creation occurred over six 24-hour days, each of which was separated by long periods of time. Creative activity was intermittently “punctuated” by eons of time.

Literary Framework

The days of Genesis do not describe a linear sequence of 24-hour days. Genesis 1 conveys a structured outline of creation activity where the description of days 1, 2, and 3 conceptually parallel days 4, 5, and 6. Days 1–3 are preparatory to the acts of days 4–6:

Day 1: creation of light; separating light from darkness
Day 4: light-bearers are created

Day 2: separation of waters; formation of sky
Day 5: waters and sky are filled with living creatures

Day 3: dry land and vegetation appear
Day 6: land animals and humans are created and sustained by plant life

Revelatory Days

The six days described in Genesis are 24-hour periods (or less), but creation did not occur on those days. Rather, over the course of six days God revealed to the writer how He created the heavens and earth.

Analogical

The six days of creation are an analogy for the normal human work week preceding the Sabbath.

Religious Polemic

The creation described in Genesis 1 reflects ancient pre-scientific cosmology, not science. How one understands the days is irrelevant to the actual purpose of the account: to assert which deity deserves credit for creation while denigrating the claims of rival deities associated with the cosmology and its descriptive elements.