Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science

by John C. Lennox

A further grammatical point should be made. In many English versions of the Bible the days of Genesis are rendered as “the first day, the second day,” and so on, each having the definite article. However, even though the Hebrew language does have a definite article (ha), it is not used in the original to qualify days one to five. Basil, a fourth-century bishop of Caesarea, thought this significant: “If then the beginning of time is called ‘one day’ rather than ‘the first day,’ it is because Scripture wishes to establish its relationship with eternity. It was, in reality, fit and natural to call ‘one’ the day whose character is to be one wholly separated and isolated from all the others.”20 What is very striking is the additional fact pointed out to me by Old Testament scholar David Gooding: although the Hebrew definite article is not used with the first five days, it is used for days six and seven. A better translation, therefore, would be “day one, day two, …, day five, the sixth day, the seventh day”; or, “a first day, a second day, …, the sixth day, the seventh day.”21