Is this too much common sense?
"In regard to day, evening and morning, I'm not talking about defining one by the other. Maybe I said something like that. But evening is the end of a day, the illumined part of the cycle. I can't pull out citations right now. But it is clearly parallel to sunset in some passages. Some of those about being unclean until evening, and then referencing sunset. There is some range though. As I recall the Passover is said to be eaten "between the evenings."
Morning too is the beginning of the "day," the illumined part of the cycle. Similar passages demonstrate this.
As far as
Genesis 1 is concerned, yom is virutally defined in v. 5, "he called the light day." Now that takes some mulling over, but we already see the illumined part of the cycle called a day. Yes, even if there is no sun.
Now when we get to the part where it says "one day" then I suppose the question comes up what is the meaning of "day"?
Now in the first place, there just isn't any evident meaning in the OT, certainly not in the Pentateuch for yom to mean "an indefinite period of time." However, even if we get such an idea in our heads, that this meaning is possible, we have to verify that it is in fact the meaning here. It isn't just a menu of options--all are equal and I can choose the one that suits me best. If I have doubt, hesitation between two options, I can look at the context.
If I say "I bought a lemon yesterday," you might have legitimate doubt whether I am talking about a fruit or a car.
If I go on to complain about the carburator and the tires, and getting my $15000 dollars back, you could surmise that those details are most compatible with an account of buyer's remorse over a dysfunctional car.
If instead I start to talk about my desire to eat healthier, and drink more water, and that putting slices in will make it more appetizing, and then go on about Vitamin C, you'd be justified in concluding that I meant "lemon" to express the fruit sense. Because I am using terms in that semantic domain.
In the case of yom, the fact that I am counting them, and that in the end I reference not only the seventh day of creation but "the seventh day" that was blessed, being associated with rest, then I am tying in the week with its Sabbath day. Also I reference two other words in that semantic domain, evening and morning. It's as if I were talking about lemons and said skin and juice. To anyone with an ounce of objectivity, it's pretty much a slam dunk that I'm talking about the fruit called lemon, and the chronological unit called "day."
I frankly cannot see what is so difficult about this."
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