Why Genesis Points to Ages, Not 24 Hours

🌒 Taking a Stand on Creation Days: Why Genesis Points to Ages, Not 24 Hours

By Johnny West — Stoic Stoner Collective

YOM—DAY

Every once in a while the text taps you on the shoulder and says, “Look again.” For me, Genesis’ creation account is one of those moments — not because Scripture is murky, but because we sometimes read it through our own cultural lenses instead of the Bible’s.

Here’s the stance I’m taking:

The “days” of creation were not 24-hour periods. They were eras — epochs, generational phases of God’s creative work.

1 — The Hebrew word yom is flexible

The word for “day” in Genesis is יוֹם — yom. It can mean a literal day, yes — but it also means a season, an age, a lifetime, or an undefined span of time. Scripture uses it that way constantly: “the day of the Lord,” “in my father’s day,” etc.

2 — Genesis 2:4 pulls the curtain back

Read this slowly:

“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.” — Genesis 2:4

This verse is like the Bible’s own commentary on Genesis 1. It calls the whole creation account “generations” and refers to the entire span as “the day” God made the heavens and the earth. That shows the Bible itself is comfortable using “day” as a theological time period, not a 24-hour cycle.

3 — Internal clues inside Genesis

• No sun until Day 4: you can’t measure 24-hour days before there’s a sun.
• Day 6 is loaded: Adam is formed, placed in Eden, given commands, names all the animals, then Eve is created — that’s more than one literal day.
• The seventh day never ends: Genesis never says “and there was evening and morning, the seventh day.” It’s an ongoing era.

4 — Genesis reads like sacred liturgy

The creation week has a deliberate structure:

Forming (Days 1–3) → Filling (Days 4–6)

This rhythmic pattern reflects temple liturgy and theology more than a stopwatch timeline.

5 — Scripture distinguishes God’s time and human time

Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8 remind us: “A thousand years in Your sight are like a day.” Not as a formula, but as a revelation that God’s “day” is not tied to Earth’s rotation.

The 6 "Days" of Creation

So — do I have a solid case?

This view is rooted in the Hebrew, confirmed by Genesis 2:4, consistent with ancient Jewish understanding, and aligned perfectly with the structure of the text. This isn’t twisting Scripture to fit a theory. This is simply letting Scripture interpret Scripture.

There’s been no manipulation, no forcing, nothing added. As a matter of fact, the essence of this passage settles the debate: the days of creation are not locked into a 24-hour earthly cycle. Genesis itself shows us they are eras — divine “days,” not solar ones.

Bottom line: however long the process took from our perspective, there is one truth that towers above the timeline — God is the Creator. Everything begins with Him, flows from Him, and is sustained by Him.

Yom (Hebrew): Basic meaning= "day". The word itself never forces the meaning “24-hour period.” — Context decides.

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