Standard Picture Book – Part 2
The standard Big Bible picture book below is an intermediate version that was created for those who are more familiar with science and with the concepts on this website. This version of a Big Bible picture book shows the Bible passage along with what scientists say about that period of cosmic history. The Bible passages use the New International Version. The scientific descriptions are for those who are familiar with basic scientific concepts at the level of an American high school. The scientific descriptions include the estimated time period in cosmic history.
DAY 1 – Starting somewhere between ~4 BYA to ~3 BYA
The Bible says...
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 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)
Scientists say...
The quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and perhaps that of methane also, correlates with the degree of cloud cover. More carbon dioxide and more methane mean more clouds. Thus, much greater quantities of these greenhouse gases in early Earth’s atmosphere likely made the sky completely translucent from the viewpoint of an observer on Earth’s surface.
Taking the point of view for Genesis 1 as the Spirit of God hovering over the waters of the earth, then this day 1 description of light appearing would suggest that the cloud cover over the earth became translucent – not totally clear, but thin enough in places so that light could come through the clouds of carbon dioxide and methane. This is consistent with scientific studies that have shown the early earth atmosphere to be composed of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and methane. From scientific modeling, the growth of oxygen in the atmosphere was only abundant enough to remove the haze after about 4 billion years after the initial earth formation.
DAY 1 – Starting somewhere between ~4 BYA to ~3 BYA
The Bible says...
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 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)
Scientists say...
The latter part of this verse is most likely speaking in metaphorical terms. It is about God’s assessment of this stage of the earth’s development and so is not subject to scientific inquiry.
This was the first “day” of creation, where the Hebrew word yom that is translated as “day” can also mean “age” or “period of time”. The usage of day and night and morning and evening here when we speak of an “age” can be confusing since we normally associate day and night, morning and evening, with a 24 hour day. We believe that a strong case can be made that these references to day and night and morning and evening can be interpreted as a metaphor for bringing order out of chaos, clarity (light) out of confusion (darkness). This would be the case for all of the rest of the verses where evening and morning are used. We note that in these phrases, it always begins with evening first (the darkness and disorder) followed by the morning (the light and order). God creates order from disorder in all cases.
