How Long Was A Day?

Q

Thank you for this great site. My question is about the creation. The sun and the moon were created on the 4th day, and this then would establish a day as being 24 hours. How do we know the length of the first 3 days? Could this be a partial explanation of the debate over the age of the earth? I believe that, no matter what, God created the earth and sent Jesus to die for my sins but am curious about if there is some way to know how long a day was before there was a sun or moon. Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated.

A

Since the the Hebrew word “yom” was used for describing days 1-3 as well as 4-7 there’s no reason to believe they were in any way different. Overwhelmingly “yom” means a normal 24 hour day. The one difference is that beginning on day four the Earth’s light came from two repositories, the sun and the moon, rather than from God Himself.

In the Millennium this will apparently be reversed. According to Rev. 21:23-24, the Glory of God will light the New Jerusalem and the New Jerusalem will light the Earth. I guess when that happens we will be the light of the world in the actual as well as the spiritual sense (Matt. 5:14).