Genesis 1 – “day”
The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (1980, Moody Press)
"It can denote: 1. the period of light (as contrasted with the period of darkness), 2. the period of twenty-four hours, 3. a general vague "time," 4. a point of time, 5. a year (in the plural; I Sam 27:7; Ex 13:10, etc.)."
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (symbols omitted)
from an unused root meaning to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figuratively (a space of time defined by an associated term), [often used adv.]:--age, + always, + chronicles, continually (-ance), daily, ([birth-], each, to) day, (now a, two) days (agone), + elder, end, evening, (for)ever(lasting), ever(more), full, life, as long as (...live), even now, old, outlived, perpetually, presently, remaining, required, season, since, space, then, (process of) time, as at other times, in trouble, weather (as) when, (a, the, within a) while (that), whole age, (full) year (-ly), younger
In Genesis 1:5 it is a period of light. Genesis 1:14 it is more than one day. In Genesis 2:4 Yom is the entire creation period. Genesis 4:3, it says "And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord." Yom = a complete process of time. In Genesis 18:11; and 21:2,7 it means old age (see Genesis 47). Genesis 40:4, "...and they continued a season inward." Here it is a non-defined season.
The use by this same author, in this same book, range all the way from a 12 hour period of light to forever. Moses uses the word in all these varied ways all throughout the Torah so as for use and etymology it could mean a part of a day, a literal 24 hour period, 1,000 years of any segment therein or beyond. One argument that is worth considering however our understanding that a day can only mean 24 literal hours is brought into question in that this definition is dependent on a created earth which makes one rotation in relation to a created sun…these did not exist until after “the third day”…and just for consideration when God says “day one” (yom echad) this is not the same phraseology as inferred in the following “days” if it were meant to be the numerically first day the writer would have been inspired to use “yachid” not “echad”. So there is something different here at least regarding this day one.
Please consider just how “echad” is used everywhere else….it is always when something apparently more than one is as one (God and His word, flesh and bone as husband and wife, the Lord Himself in the Shemam, etc,), how does this fit the YEC OEC debate? (also Augustine was not the only one...some other ECFs saw each day as 1000 years, and Jewish Philosopher Maimonides as well assigned no specific limit to the length of a Genesis 1 yom, and his work was inspirational to a paper written by MIT Professor Gerald Schroeder who shows how time itself bends changes and stretches at different times and places (interesting read at the least)...
Brother Paul