The Meaning of Days, Years and Numbers in the Bible
Douglas Hamp, MA (see note at bottom of article)
July 2005
Introduction
The following article is actually two different theological issues, the interpretation of the "days" in Genesis 1 and the meaning of "thousand years" in Revelation 20, which are related due to the use of numbers and measurements of time in the Bible. How one interprets these two passages depends on whether one takes a figurative/allegorical or literal/straightforward approach to the Bible. If we allow Scripture to interpret itself, then we find that only one of the two approaches is acceptable.
Numbers and Days
The question of whether the earth is relatively young or extremely old often rests on the understanding of the Hebrew word ???yom "day". Those espousing an old earth (approximately 4.56 billion years old) while trying to remain faithful to Scripture will contend that the days in Genesis 1 are to be understood as long, indefinite periods of time. The young earth camp, however, claims that God created the heavens and the earth and all therein in six literal 24-hour days roughly 6000 years ago. Who is to say who is right? How can we determine what a day really means? Does day only and always refer to a period of 24-hours or does it also refer to an indefinite period of time in which millions and billions of years could have passed allowing for the theistic-evolution (or old earth) model of the world?
Meanings of Day in the Old Testament
As with most misunderstandings in the Bible, the key to unlocking the puzzle lies in the context of the word. The word "day" is used in several different ways in the Bible. Occasionally, we see it talking about a time in the past. Judges 18:1, for example, states that "In those days..." ????? ??? bayamim hahem. This exact phrase appears 31 times in the Old Testament. It is a very common expression and is really no different than how we say "back in my days" or "back in those days" referring to a period of years in our lives but stating it in "days". Hence, in this context days are understood to be referring to time in the past which probably lasted several years though definitely not thousands or millions.
Sometimes the Biblical writers used day to refer to a specific time which has theological or eschatological significance such as "the day of the LORD" ??? ???? yom YHWH. This expression, found 13 times in the Old Testament, mostly in the book of Isaiah, refers to a time in the future when God will judge the world and usher in a new age. This expression seems to speak more of an event of unknown duration rather than a specific amount of time, though a period of 24-hours cannot be ruled out.
At other times "days", in the plural, can refer to the span of someone's life. In Genesis 5:4 we read concerning the days of Adam, "So all the days that Adam ??????? (yamei-adam) lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died." Here day is used in reference to Adam's lifetime, described as "days" but then the text very clearly goes on to clarify what is meant by days - that is the years of his life or the summation of the days of his life.
24-hour Days
The final meaning refers to days of 24-hours. The most basic way of defining a day was from evening to evening. The ancient Israelites, contrary to us, started their new days at sunset. Thus, Friday night at sunset would already be considered the Sabbath and the day would end Saturday evening at around the same time.
Another way to indicate a regular day of 24-hours is by ???? ??? hayom hazeh which is translated as "the very same day". In Genesis 7:13 we read: "On the very same day Noah ...entered the ark". Likewise Genesis 17:23 states: "So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him." In both of these passages the usage of the word day makes reference to the same day - that is the 24-hour period which they were currently in. It is clear that the usage here does not refer to an indefinite period of time but to a 24-hour period.
When a cardinal number (one, two, three, four, etc.) appears in front of the word "day" it refers only and always to one (or many) period(s) of 24-hours. There are numerous verses which elucidate the point: Genesis 33:13 "But Jacob said to him, 'My lord knows that the children are weak, and the flocks and herds which are nursing are with me. And if the men should drive them hard one day, all the flock will die.'" The issue in this verse is how much can children and herds that are nursing be pushed in one day's time? The reference is clearly to one 24-hour period of time. Numbers 11:20 clarifies the usage even more. The children of Israel complained against the LORD since they did not have meat like they had in Egypt, the very place where God rescued them from. Rather than simply trust God for their needs or even ask for meat, they complained bitterly against God. In frustration with his stubborn children, He declares that they will have more meat than they know what to do with.
"You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the LORD who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, 'Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?'"
The meaning is plain of what day or days means. There will be not just one or two or five or ten or twenty days but a whole month's worth of meat. The meaning of the word "day" is augmented by the contrast with the word ???? hodesh "month" which only refers to the time of about thirty days or one cycle of the moon and never anything else.
Further proof that yom "day" refers to a 24-hour day when preceded by cardinal numbers is found throughout the Old Testament. God, in explaining the judgment coming upon the world, says in Genesis 7:4 "For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made." God gave Noah another seven days - not long, indefinite periods of time, but seven 24-hour days, until the floodwaters would come. Verse ten records that indeed after seven literal days, the waters of the flood came "And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth." Verse eleven surpasses the previous two in precision by telling us exactly when this occurred. "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." This description is not just some ad hoc indefinite time, but it was on the 17th of the second month, a very real time that the flood came. And then the record (verse 24) tells us specifically how long the waters were on the earth. "And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days." One hundred and fifty days in the text is not some long undetermined era. According to the story eight people were on the ark along with two of every kind of animal while the waters raged underneath. Some people would contend that the days of the flood are irrelevant since Noah was simply a mythical or an allegorical figure. However, if one accepts the words of Jesus and the New Testament then one must also accept that Noah was a real person who lived through the worldwide flood. (See Matthew 24:37, 38, Luke 17:26, 27, I Peter 3:20, II Peter 2:5, Hebrews 11:7). Thus, since Jesus and the disciples accepted Noah as real then we must understand the days described in Genesis as being real 24-hour days.
The list of verses in the Old Testament confirming that every time a number comes before day it is referring to a 24-hour day is extensive and a few more examples greatly illustrate the principle. Genesis 30:36 "Then he put three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks." Genesis 50:3 "Forty days were required for him [Joseph], for such are the days required for those who are embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days." Exodus 7:25 "And seven days passed after the LORD had struck the river." Exodus 12:15 "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel." Exodus 16:26 "Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none." Though, there are too many verses to list them all in this short article, throughout the entire Old Testament, every case where a number precedes "day", it deals with the literal usage of "day" rather than an indefinite period of time.
This survey of the usage of days in the Old Testament brings us back to the question of just how we are to understand the days of creation. We have seen that there are times when day is used for periods of time other than a literal 24-hour (though millions or billions of years of time is never implied). However, whenever a number is placed in front of the word "day", the meaning becomes limited to that of a 24-hour period, that is, a regular day just as we use the word to describe a day. So, looking at Genesis 1, are we to interpret those days as literal 24-hour days or long, indefinite periods of time in which evolution may have occurred?
The Days in Genesis One
The days in Genesis 1 could certainly be understood as literal 24-hour days due to the usage of the limitation of "the evening and the morning" found throughout Genesis 1. Even though the evidence seems to point to a literal 24-hour days in Genesis one, the old-earth camp is still persuaded that these days are long periods of time rather than 24-hour days. They suggest that the usage of ordinal numbers (first, second, third, fourth etc.) rather than cardinals as noted previously, denotes different eras of time and thus the first era (day) is followed by the second era (day) etc. where each day equals an unknown but extremely long period of time in which the slow processes of evolution, with God's help, had enough time according to Darwin's theory of slow change.
There are some fatal flaws to this theory however, from a biblical perspective. First of all, the first day of Genesis in the Hebrew is not actually defined as the first day, but rather as "day one" or ??? ??? yom echad. The word echad is the cardinal number "one" and should not be understood as first, but as in the series "one, two, three, four, etc." We have seen previously that any time day follows a cardinal number it always refers to a literal 24-hour day. So, at the very least, we can conclude that the first day of creation was 24-hours.
The absolute verdict to this puzzle of the length of the days in Genesis is given by God Himself. After taking the children of Israel by the hand out of Egypt, God led them to a place called Mount Sinai where He gave them the law. In Exodus chapter 20 verses 9 and 10, God states:
"Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates."
There is no doubt whatsoever that God is talking about a regular workweek. The people were to work six (literal) days and then they were to take a day off, something very different from the custom of the peoples around them who generally didn't take any days off. Furthermore, the idea of a week being seven days is something uniquely Biblical as well since other cultures did not necessarily have seven-day weeks. The Egyptian week, for instance, consisted of ten days and only occasionally did one get to take a day off - something especially true for the laborers.
In verse eleven God gives the reason and history behind the seven-day week "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." Here God unequivocally declares that He created everything in only six days. As with the other times that a cardinal number appears before the word day yom, it is always used without exception as a literal 24-hour day. So too here God makes perfectly clear how long he took to make the universe just in case anyone should be confused. If these days are not taken as literal days then neither can the Sabbath be taken as literal. However, the fact that the Sabbath is a literal day starting at sunset Friday evening until the following Saturday evening goes back in Hebrew tradition as far back as Mount Sinai and it is perhaps their most cherished day. Since we know that the Sabbath has always been considered a literal span of 24-hours, we can safely conclude that the six days of creation were literal as well.
It would seem that God wanted to reiterate just in case anyone didn't get the message. In Exodus 31:15 and 17 He says,
"Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death...It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.'"
There is no way to circumvent this declaration: the Sabbath, the day of rest, the seventh day of the week, observed for 24-hours every week, is a sign between the Jewish people and God. Transgressing the covenant was punishable by death. This is a far cry from an indefinite period of time. The Israelite knew exactly how long it was for not knowing would cost him his life. The Sabbath was/is 24-hours and therefore so are all of the other days of the week, which is how long it took God to create the heavens and the earth.
Conclusions about the Days Genesis One
In conclusion, we have seen that indeed, sometimes the word yom carries a meaning of more than just a 24-hour period. However, every time the word is used in conjunction with a cardinal number preceding it, the meaning is always and without exception limited to the period of a regular and literal day - that is, a period of 24-hours. God himself reiterates that He created the heavens and earth in six days, which is why He instructs man to work six days and then to take the seventh off. We know from history that the Hebrews have always taken the six-day workweek literally and have considered the seventh to be a day of rest. Since God tells us twice in Exodus that those were literal days, our only plausible conclusion regarding the six (plus one) days in Genesis are to be taken as literal 24-hour days. We need not and cannot conclude that they were six indefinite periods of time, at least not if we are to take everything else in the Bible seriously. The only reason to conclude that the six days of creation were long periods of time is if we seek to harmonize the Bible with the theory of evolution. However, if we simply seek to allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, then the interpretation of Genesis 1 is clear: God created the heavens and earth in six literal 24-hour days and rested on the seventh.
Years and Numbers
The following issue is very similar to the first: what do numbers and units of time actually mean? Are they merely figurative or are they to be taken literally? In Revelation 20 verses 2-6, five times we are told that Satan will be bound and that Christ will reign for a thousand years. Understanding this to be a literal period of thousand years or an allegory of an indefinite period of time has been an issue which has, generally speaking, created two camps of believers. There are those who call themselves premillenialists, believing that the Great Tribulation will occur before Jesus returns to set up a literal period of a thousand years in which He will reign physically from Jerusalem. The amillenialists purport that the thousand years in Revelation should be taken figuratively and that in fact, there will not be an actual, literal, physical reign of Christ nor a binding of Satan for a literal thousand years. Again, we are faced with the question of whose view is right? Is it really a matter of theological preference as to which view one holds or is there some key to unlock this enigma?
The wonder of Scripture is that we use Scripture to interpret Scripture based on the words of Jesus in John 10:35 where he said "&ldots;and Scripture cannot be broken". This is reiterated by the apostles Paul and Peter
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
(1 Timothy 3:16)
"&ldots;and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation - as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. (2 Peter 3:15, 16 emphasis mine)
Notice that Peter is equating the writings of Paul with "the rest of the Scriptures", that is the Old Testament. Since Peter considers the writings of Paul to be on the same level as the Old Testament, which obviously was considered authoritative, we can confidently use the entire Bible to help interpret the meaning of "one thousand years" in the book of Revelation.
There are in essence two words that we need to study in order to determine the duration of time in Revelation 20. We will first of all look at years to appreciate how the word is used in the Bible. Once we have recognized what is the normal meaning we will explore what writers meant when stating one thousand, to see if the number has just a simple meaning of thousand or if as the amillenialists state, it should be understood as an indefinite period of time.
Years in the Bible
The word "year" (Greek hetos) appears a total of 49 times in the New Testament. In every occurrence the meaning of "year" (or "years") is simply that of a real, literal period of a year. For example we read in Mark 5:25 "Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years." The text treats this as a real number of real years and why shouldn't it? What else could "years" mean? In Luke, we read of the prophetess Anna "and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years..." (Luke 2:37) In John 2:20 the Jewish leaders reply to Jesus' claim: "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" Furthermore, in Acts 13:20 we read "After that He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet." All of the examples were referring to a real amount of time and were using "years" in its literal sense. The 450 years of the time of the Judges is considered to be a real amount of time. The fact is that "year" is never used in any other way. "Year" always refers to what we understand to be a year - that is, the completion of twelve months (with the exception of an occasional 13th month added every several years to balance out the calendar), once around the sun. Unlike "day" in the Old Testament, which is occasionally used to refer to periods other than 24 literal hours, i.e. "in those days" (Judges 18:1), "years" in the Bible always and only means a definite period of time.
Thousand
Since year (and years) has only a literal and absolute meaning, our next undertaking is to try to correctly understand "thousand". Is there something in the word which would lead us to conclude that "thousand" could mean something other than its literal and plain meaning?
"Thousand" only occurs in the New Testament eleven times, six of those being in the twentieth chapter of Revelation. The other five times occur twice in 2 Peter 3:8 "&ldots;that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." The other three all appear in the book of Revelation as well. The number of verses with which we can compare the word "thousand" in the New Testament in order to correctly determine the meaning is somewhat limited since six of the eleven examples occur in Revelation 20. Thus, we need to turn to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament translated from the Hebrew approximately 270 BC.
The word "thousand" appears 504 times in the Septuagint where it is translated from the Hebrew word ??? elef, which simply means thousand. It never refers to any kind of imaginary number nor does it signify an indefinite quantity. The Septuagint merely translates that word literally and it carries the same meaning. There are cases where a text will say "thousands" in the plural and of course, that by definition is indefinite. But whenever a text refers to "one thousand" it is speaking in a literal sense.
Ah, you might ask, why doesn't the word "one" appear before the word thousand? Quite simply, Greek, unlike English, does not require the word "one" to appear before thousand for it to be understood that it means one thousand. Many languages are parallel to Greek rather than English. For example, in Hebrew, there is no need to say echad "one" before elef "thousand". In fact, to do so would sound quite strange. So too in Greek, when it is only one thousand then no other word is necessary to qualify the number. Only when it is two thousand plus, does a number come in front of it.
The Definite Article
The phrase "thousand years" appears five times in the passage of Revelation 20:2-6. Though the study of grammar is laborious to many people, it can prove beneficial when determining the meaning of words.
Revelation 20:2-6 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
Three times in the passage the author, John, states "&ldots;bound him [Satan] for a thousand years." (Revelation 20:2) "&ldots;And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years." (Revelation 20:4) "&ldots;and shall reign with Him a thousand years." (Revelation 20:6) In all three of these passages the literal rendering of the text is that Satan is bound and the saints reign one thousand years (one is included in the word "thousand" in Greek). The other passages "&ldots;till the thousand years were finished." (Revelation 20:3) "again until the thousand years were finished." (Revelation 20:5) both refer to a specific time indicated by the use of the definite article the. The word the is a limiter or a definer. It tells us that something specific is indicated. So too, the time frame is not something undefined but in fact it is very defined. "The thousand years&ldots;" reinforces the fact that a literal amount of time is indicated.
A Final Objection
In Peter's second letter, he writes to fellow believers who were suffering all kinds of trials and persecutions on account of their belief in Jesus. His words are to comfort them and remind them that God's perspective is different from ours. He writes, "But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." (2 Peter 3:8). This verse has been used to supposedly prove that time and numbers in the Bible do not have not concrete value and therefore the days in Genesis 1 could have lasted one thousand years or perhaps even one million, and likewise the thousand years in Revelation is not an actual period of one thousand years. But is Peter really saying that one-day is equal to one thousand years? Looking at the verse again carefully we note that there are two important keys to a correct understanding.
The first key is "with the Lord". Peter here is describing God's perspective to time and not man's. This cannot be overlooked. Peter is not saying that one thousand years is equal to one day. He is saying that in God's economy time is radically different and that when we think that the Lord is "slack" we should think again. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9). Peter wants to make clear that God's timetable is different than ours.
The other important key is the little word "as" ?? ho. Though small, it plays an important function in that it tells us that two things are similar but not exact in nature. It is no different than when we make such statements as "Johnny is like his father" or "In Johnny's eyes, his father is as Hercules". Both statements are merely stating that one is like or similar to another but not the same as the other. So too, Peter is saying that in the eyes of God, a day is similar to one thousand years and vice versa, one thousand years is like a day. Since God is outside of time, this simply confirms that time is irrelevant to God, though it is not irrelevant to us. Peter gives us another example of the use of this little word in his first epistle where he says: "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass... " (I Peter 1:24) Clearly, he is not saying we are actually grass which can convert sunlight to chlorophyll and then oxygen. He merely says that we are in many ways similar to grass. Just as it has a short life, so too are our lives short when compared with the eternal God and our glory will fade away faster than we think. Thus to God, a day or a thousand years is the same and our lives will pass by quickly.
This truth was first stated in the Old Testament, which Peter more than likely drew from. "For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night." (Psalm 90:4) Here too, the writer is simply stating things from God's point of view - that is, time has no bearing on God. He is outside of time and hence whether it is a day or one thousand years, it is the same to him. We are not to conclude however, that time is irrelevant for us. Again and again, we see that people live real lives for a specific amount of time. The Bible treats the lifespan of the lives of Adam (930 years), Noah (950 years), Abraham (175 years), Sarah (127), Jacob (147 years) and Moses (120 years) as all real and definite (See Genesis 5:5, 9:29, 25:7, 23:1, 47:28 and Deuteronomy 34:7, respectively). Notice that Adam and Noah lived close to one thousand years. Their lifetime was like a single day in the eyes of the Lord, but nevertheless, they lived a specific number of years, and at least according to Jacob, those years didn't pass by as if they were just a day
"And Jacob said to Pharaoh, 'The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.'" (Genesis 47:9)
Conclusion
In conclusion, we have seen that years and numbers in both the Old and New Testaments are taken as literal. "Years" always refers to a literal amount of time. They are never used to refer to anything more than a year. When the writer wished to indicate a longer period, then the exact number of years was mentioned. We also saw that the number "thousand" is treated just like the other numbers in both Testaments. The references to years in the New Testament are numerous and all of them are treated as real years including the one of 450 years. Furthermore, the Greek word chilio meaning "one thousand", is used hundreds of times in the Greek Septuagint and every time has a simple meaning of a literal number, that is - "one thousand"! And finally, we noted that the grammar in Revelation, by the use of the definite article limits the use of what one thousand can mean. It is not an indefinite period of time, but rather is very definite.
Thus we are left with the conclusion that the thousand years of Revelation should be understood to mean precisely that - one thousand literal years. Having used Scripture to interpret Scripture, we see that any other interpretation is both inconsistent with the teaching of the Bible and grammatically unsound.
Finally, both Genesis 1 and Revelation 20:2-6 when taken in the context of the Bible as a whole and interpreted with Scripture yield a literal interpretation of the numbers, days and years. We can definitively conclude that God made the heavens and the earth in six literal days and at the end of the age, Jesus will reign for one thousand literal years on the earth while Satan is bound. In short, we need not look for a clever figurative interpretation of Scripture but can simply accept what it says at face value.
Note: Doug Hamp teaches in California at Calvary Chapel in the School of Ministry and Graduate School. He earned his MA in Hebrew in the Ancient Near East from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.