This view proposes that each of the creation days was a vast geological time period of millions or perhaps billions of years. This view comes from the Hebrew word that is translated ?day? (The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew). The Hebrew word is ?yom?. What is the definition of ?yom??
Answer: aeon
What is an ?aeon??
Answer: A short or long period of time marked by a beginning and ending.
Because of the ambiguity of this word (not only this, but the fact that it's not clear) it is argued that each of the creation days represents a vast geological period of time of millions or perhaps billions of years. However, it is very important to understand that words mean what they are used to mean in the context in which they are used.
The word ?day? is used in two ways, i.e. literal (24 hours or less) and figurative (more than 24 hours).
Figurative Usage: In Genesis 2:4 we read, ?This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven.? (New American Standard Bible) In this context the word ?day? (singular) is used to mean the six days of creation. Today we might say, ?In the day when George Washington was President of the United States.? Of course the ?day? of George Washington?s presidency was much more than one literal day.
Literal Usage: In Genesis 7:11 we read, ?In the six hundredth year of Noah?s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month --- on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth,? (NIV) The ?seventeenth day? was a literal day of 24 hours or less. We come to this conclusion by the context, i.e. what the word day is used to mean.
The question is:
What is the word ?day? used to mean in reference to the creation days?
Answer: Literal days.
Explanation: Each of the creation days is referred to as an ?evening and morning? day. It is important to note that the Hebrew day went from sunset to sunset and was referred to as an ?evening and morning? day. ?evening and morning? was used to mean a literal day.
Further Explanation: Each of the days of creation is referred to with an ordinal number, i.e. first, second, third, etc. (An ordinal number denotes the place occupied in an ordered sequence.) In the Old Testament when an ordinal number is used in reference to day it is referring to a literal day, e.g. ?In the six hundredth year of Noah?s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month -- on that day all the springs....? (Genesis 7:11, NIV)
Sooooo, even though the definition of the word day (yom) is ambiguous, we can determine that the creation days were not millions or billions of years long each.
