The “date” is zero Anno Mundi (AM). It is the beginning of Creation. Is it the “beginning” of existence from Genesis 1:1 or is it the beginning of the generation of mankind? The end of time may be as the writer of Jubilees says, “when the heavens and the earth shall be renewed” (Jub 1:8-9).[1]
Just as I surmised, angels were created on the first “day”
(Jub 2:2). Then the sun was created on the fourth “day” “to be a great sign on
the earth for days and for sabbaths of years” (Jub 1:9).
As we all should know, God created mankind on the “evening”
of the sixth “day.” Evening is my hypothesis in that the beasts were
created first on that “day.” All God’s “work” was completed at the end of the
sixth day, and then He rested on the Sabbath (Gen 1). The seventh “day” was
made holy, and mankind were to keep it holy. Adam, according to Jublilees, was
created in the first “week” and Eve in the second (Jub 2:8).
Now for my own commentary based on Holy Scripture. The only period
that the angels could have been created was on the first “day.” During that “day”
something huge happened:
7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Rev 12:7-9)
The creation and the war could not have occurred in one calendar
“day.” Herein, I put day in quotes because that is how it is written,
but Peter wrote about time as well, “Beloved, do not forget this one thing,
that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day” (2 Pet 3:8). Then the first “day” may have been one-thousand years, or
Peter could have been rhetorical; that time is defined by God. I accept the
latter. However, one-thousand years as a “day” is commonplace in ancient literature,
and existence on Earth (the planet) will be seven “days” (or 7000 years.)
In my book, On the Origin of Man and the Universe, I
propose that day and night literally mean, “warming” (day) and “twisting from
the warming” (to night) (Strong’s Dictionary). With that understanding, translators
wrote “day” and “night” because day is warm and night is a turning
from that warmth, even literally. A day is one “process” but there are many
more. In fact, the first process was creating the heaven and the earth — heaven
being the warm and earth the cool, and the interim the time for the process to stabilize,
or cool.
Because creation of the angels and the war in the heaven had
duration, the “morning” of the first day would have been their creation
and rebellion. Once they rebelled, there was no place in which to cast them out.
Thus, perhaps in the evening of the first “day” God created the earth.
Translators do not capitalize “heaven” and “earth” in
Genesis 1 for a reason. That was not the place “Heaven” nor the place
“Earth.” It was two different realms — one the unseen and the other the seen.
Throughout the Bible, although angels remain unseen, they can appear in earth.
Demon angels roam within particle matter, both planet earth and are real beings
in the heavens.
For Holy Scripture to coincide with reality and to have
continuity in scripture, Peter must be correct in his words. He is because what
he wrote was divinely inspired. In my book, I concluded that “days” should
rightly be rendered “processes.” The first “process” was the creation of the
invisible and the visible things — the unseen and the seen. Paul wrote about
that: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and
Godhead” (Rom 1:20). “Power” is required for a process. God was the Power that
created something from nothing — the material from the immaterial. Paul knew
that because Jesus gave him that knowledge. Paul described a process!
Because “process” was not part of the body of knowledge
until the late 19th Century, translators of the Septuagint would not
have used “process” where “day” appears, and not even Wycliffe himself in the
16th Century! Rest assured, I support the “six-day creation,”
according to scripture but must consider the time interval for there to be a
creation and war in heaven. I support the “warming” and the “twisting from the
warming,” according to the Hebrew received text.
Perhaps “days” apply after the sun was created, or perhaps “days” apply when mankind was created since the sun was created for our purposes. With that supposition, perhaps Anno Mundi (AD) 0 was with the beginning of Adam since time was created for Adam, or perhaps the world “clock” started after God rested on the seventh “day.” We do know that the clock stops after our own “day of rest” on the seventh “day,“ to wit:
And their bones will rest
in the Earth,
And their spirits will have much joy. (Jub 23:31)
That “day” is before the resurrection because the bones are in one realm
and the soul in another. That may point, if that is true, then the “rapture” is
after the Millennial Reign of Jesus, rather than before. The “rapture”
is the general resurrection when the dead in Christ shall rise from the grave.
So far, this commentary is background for the “day of rest” in Hebrews chapter 4. Tomorrow, I will continue with that.
[1] The author recognizes that the Book of Jubilees is not canon but is comprehensive commentary about the time interval between the generation and the regeneration, or between Genesis and Re-genesis in John’s Revelation of the end of time. Time is important in Holy Scripture and it is imperative to know the seasons although the day and the hour shall remain unknown. The writer of Jubilees has a great handle on the concept of time from the creation of time with the creation of the sun until the world’s “lamp” is darkened — when mankind shall rest without time!
(picture credit: Pinterest; "Syroco Sunburst Clock")
world’s “lamp” is darkened — when mankind shall rest without
time!
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