Creation account does not mention creation OF the planet.

There's no "then" in there. The first day starts at verse 1 and ends at verse 5. The second day starts at verse 6 and ends at verse 8. And so on. There's simply no justification for splitting off part of the first day.Welcome to EvC.
We usually go easy on the new guys, so don't expect such an easy ride all the time. Edited by Ringo, : Shpelling.

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No, that doesn't make sense.Verse 2 says that the earth was "without form" and "void". It was created but not completed until the water was separated from the land and the living things were created.Similarly, the heavens were created but not completed until the sun, moon and stars were created.Again, there's simply no justification for splitting off verse 1 as some kind of "introduction".

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No. According to Genesis 1, the earth was created at the beginning of the first day. It says nothing about anything before the first day.Hint:

quote:

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Gen 1:5 ... And the evening and the morning were the first day.

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It says "the first day", period. There were no days before that. Essentially, there was no time before that.

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You'll note that there was nothing to "mark" time until the fourth day:

quote:

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Gen 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
Gen 1:17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Gen 1:18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

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So "days" are not just light separated from dark - they are extrapolated back to the first day. The creation of light on the first day is irrelevant to the time-keeping.Time started "in the beginning", but there is nothing in the text to suggest that "the beginning" was anything other than the beginning of the first (extrapolated) day.

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Exactly. The lights weren't needed to determine the first three days, so why was the light/dark needed to determine the first day?The layout of the days is independent of anything that was created - sun, moon or light itself. The timescale was superimposed on the events after the fact. I don't think it's "pretty clear" at all. I think it's barely plausible but not supported by the text.Feel free to point out where the text indicates the beginning of the first day, other than "the beginning".

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No. You're making a huge assumption that there's a period there. As I understand it, in the Hebrew there is no period there (or anywhere). That's what I said: The days that we understand now were superimposed as a timescale. Again, as I understand it, the Hebrew text does imply literal 24-hour days. We have other threads on that (sorry I don't have time to look them up right now).

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The term "day" refering to the light "half", as opposed to the dark "half", is not the same as the term "day" refering to the whole 24 hours. The light and dark were separated on the first day, but there was nothing to mark the 24-hour cycle until the fourth day.In any case, that's all just a tangent. The real question is whether the planet was created before the 6 days or during the 6 days (ignoring the fact that the 6 days are nonsense).I'm just saying that there's nothing in the text to indicate a "gap" of unknown duration between "the beginning" and Day 1.

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