What About The Word “Day” In Genesis 2:4?
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles, uncategorizedA querist asks, “When the latter part of Genesis 2:4 – KJV says, “in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,” is it speaking as we would when we say “back in the day” meaning a period of time and not a single day? Or is it that time is different to the LORD, i.e. a 1000 years as a day; a day as a 1000 years?”
Genesis 2:4-KJV states:
“These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.”
In the margin of my Bible in Genesis 2:4-NKJV, I have a Scripture reference that refers back to Genesis 1:1-NKJV, which states:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.“
From my study of this passage, the word “day” in Genesis 2:4 is used as a figure of speech called “synecdoche” (a part of time is put for the whole time), and would simply refer back to the “beginning” of time after which God “created the heaven and the earth” over a period of six literal twenty-four hour days (Genesis 1:5; Genesis 1:8; Genesis 1:13; Genesis 1:19; Genesis 1:23; Genesis 1:31). Thus the entire six days of creation are spoken of as a single day in Genesis 2:4 (cf. Genesis 2:1).