Quote:
Originally Posted by Sticks
The problem with that exegesis is that the issue is not with Genesis but with Exodus 20:11, which seems to tie down the days of creation to literal 24 hour days. |
But that is my point: the bible is open to interpretation - that is precisely why there are so many different denominations of christianity based on this one book. Each denomination has cherry picked or rejected certain aspects of the bible, or interpreted it differently from another denomination. Furthermore the passage you have cited from Exodus lends no extra credibility to the belief that a day in biblical terms is 24 hours.
Also the written down version is based on oral tradition, and it is entirely likely that stories that have been handed down through hundreds of years will have been corrupted in the process. There is no doubt that certain events in the Old Testament are common to many religions other than christianity, for example the Great Flood which is chronicled in the Torah and the Qu'ran and is mentioned in other Eastern religions such as Sikhism, which lends credibility to the fact that at least some of the stories in the Bible are based on factual events. The account in the bible that the flood covered the face of the earth should not be taken literally since, at the time that the account was written, who knows what area ancient civilisations believed constituted the "face of the earth"?