Dual Meanings in Scripture Are Sometimes Appropriate

The Importance of Good Exegesis

In all of our interpretation of Bible passages, we should strive for sound exegesis. The danger is instead of use eisegesis, which is injecting our own personal biases, opinions, or hidden meanings into the writing instead of finding what the original author actually meant. In other words, we “read into” a text something that is not appropriate. It has happened throughout Christian history that readers have read into the Biblical text things that were later interpreted as heresy or at the least inconsistent with other teachings in the Bible. There are also instances where readers disagree to this day about appropriate interpretations. This is the basis for many differences in denominational beliefs. It has also happened that over time new discoveries about our environment have challenged what was originally thought to be sound exegesis. A primary example of this is how science has shown that some passages are best interpreted as metaphorical.

Use of yom in the First Day of Creation

The ideas presented on this website and similar websites continue in this tradition. We suggest that in light of new scientific evidence that it is appropriate to re-evaluate some Biblical passages. This re-evaluation is especially interesting for the passage which describes the first day of creation. 

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day.

– Genesis 1:3-5 (NIV)      

In this passage, we see the word “day” being used twice. In the first instance, “God called the light ‘day’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ ” Then in the second instance, “there was evening, and there was morning – the first day.” In the interpretation that we use on this site for each “day” or “yom” of each of the six creation “days”, then we interpret those days as long periods of time, much longer than a 24 hour period. And for our interpretation for Day 1, denoted by the second use of the word “day”, we understand that to be when the sunlight started to shine through that translucent cloud cover of the early Earth. So, how should we interpret the first instance of the word “day” in this passage? Is it a “long period of time”, as we have assumed that it is for the second use of the word “day” in this passage? Or is the first use of the word “day” to be understood as one rotation of the Earth about its axis? Today, that one rotation on the axis of the Earth constitutes a 24 hour period, but on early Earth, that time would probably have been different. Even so, we want to consider the concept of the first use of the word “day” as being similar to our 24 hour day, which would be one rotation of the Earth around its axis. 

Considering the possibility of the first “day” denoting one rotation of the Earth on its axis, it would indeed seem that this first use of the word “day” in this passage could and should be interpreted in that way. The translucence of the cloud cover would cause the light to appear on the surface of the Earth as long as the Earth’s surface was facing the sun during the Earth’s rotation. When the Earth rotated away from the sun, then no sunlight would be projected on the surface of the Earth. So, this first use of the word “day” would seem to correspond to the traditional interpretation of the word “day” that we are familiar with – the time that it takes for the Earth to make one rotation on its axis. As the Earth rotates, the surface of the Earth that faces the sun would have light from the sun filter through the translucent cloud cover. That part of the surface of the Earth would experience “day” or the daylight hours. As the Earth continued to rotate, then at some point that same surface would not face the sun and so would no longer have sunlight on its surface. That part of the Earth would then experience “night”. This is the usage of “day” and “night” that we are most familiar with and would seem to be the most appropriate way that the first usage of the word “day” should be understood. 

Now, it should be noted that in both of these instances of the word “day” in this passage that the Hebrew word “yom” is used. So, that would leave us with  the one word “yom” being interpreted in two different ways in the same passage. And if we want to have good exegesis, then we should ask ourselves whether there is any precedence for this. Are there any other Biblical Scriptures where a given word has more than one meaning in the same passage? That is what we will explore on this page. 

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Dual Meanings

In the Bible, there do seem to be some passages where a word or phrase can be validly interpreted with two different meanings. In these cases, both of the meanings appear to be valid at the same time. Let’s look at a few of those passages.