Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 39:4 (Dec 1996)
Article: Does Genesis 1 Provide A Chronological Sequence?
Author: David A. Sterchi

JETS 39:4 (December 1996) p. 529

Does Genesis 1 Provide A Chronological Sequence?

David A. Sterchi*

I was first pulled into the vortex of controversy about Genesis during my senior year in public high school. A course called The Bible as Literature debated the Noahic flood and its scope. Other debates erupted in college when the School of Science at Purdue University held a panel discussion on evolution in response to recent campus visits by James Whitcomb, Henry Morris and A. E. Wilder-Smith. 1 This was my first encounter with creationists and evolutionists in conflict.

Since my odyssey began over fifteen years ago, I have made one important observation. Two kinds of errors can be and have been made by some Christians: (1) to see something in the Biblical text that is not there; (2) to miss something in the Biblical text that is there. (A perfect analogy exists with some scientists and their data as well.) One objective of evangelicals (and scientists) is to minimize such errors. Submitting our ideas to others for critical evaluation is one way of trying to avoid these errors. Therefore I submit this article for your consideration.

The seven days of creation in Gen 1:3–2:3 are the present focus of my attention. These days appear to have some kind of organizing relationship rooted in the literary structure of the passage. This idea is now being popularized, for example, in the study notes of The NIV Study Bible. 2 But the idea has been carried even further than just organization. Mark Throntveit suggests that this structural relationship with some textual hints points to the fact that the sequence of days is not chronologically ordered at all. 3 This is a quantum leap. It is one thing to suggest that a factual or historical account has a literary structure. It is something else to say that such an account is not chronologically ordered even though it is saturated with chronological terminology. It is essential, then, that the text be scrutinized for any and all clues about chronology or its absence.

I. The Sequence Of Days In Gen 1:3-2:3

The pertinent phrases in the MT read yôm ʾeḥād (Gen 1:5), yôm s̆ēnî (1:8), yôm s̆ĕlîs̆î (1:13), yôm rĕbîʿî (1:19), yôm ḥămîs̆î(You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
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