How long are the days in Genesis 1 how old is the earth and life did man and apes share a common ancestor were Adam and Eve real people why or why not?

Answer 1

The great creative epochs described in Genesis were periods lasting thousands of years, during which, The Bible says, specific steps were taken in the divine preparation of the earth for man.

Just how long ago the starry heavens and the earth were created is not stated in the Bible. Scientists estimate the age of some rocks as being three and a half billion years, and the earth itself as being about four to four and a half billion or more years. As to time, the Scriptures are more definite about the six creative days of the Genesis account. These days have to do, not with the creation of earth's matter or material, but with the arranging and preparing of it for man's habitation.

The evidence is clear that belief in "ape-men" is unfounded. Instead, humans have all the earmarks of being created-separate and distinct from any animal. Humans reproduce only after their own kind. They do so today and have always done so in the past. Any apelike creatures that lived in the past were just that-apes, or monkeys-not humans. And fossils of ancient humans that differ slightly from humans of today simply demonstrate variety within the human family, just as today we have many varieties living side by side. There are seven-foot humans and there are pygmies, with varying sizes and shapes of skeletons. But all belong to the same human "kind," not animal "kind."

Some people are surprised to learn that Adam and Eve are mentioned repeatedly throughout the Bible. What light do these references shed on the historicity of the Genesis account?

Consider, for example, the Jewish ancestral lists recorded in the Bible book of First Chronicles chapters 1 to 9 and in the Gospel of Luke chapter 3. These remarkably detailed genealogical records span 48 and 75 generations respectively. Luke traces the genealogy of Jesus Christ, while Chronicles records the royal and priestly ancestral lines for the nation of Israel. Both lists include the names of such well-known figures as Solomon, David, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Noah, and finally Adam. All the names in the two lists represent real people, and Adam was the original real person on each list.

In addition, again and again the Bible presents Adam and Eve as real human beings, not as mythical characters. Here are some examples:

• "[God] made out of one man every nation of men." (ACTS 17:26)

• "Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus . . . death ruled as king from Adam down to Moses." (ROMANS 5:12, 14)

• "The first man Adam became a living soul." (1 CORINTHIANS 15:45)

• "Adam was formed first, then Eve." (1 TIMOTHY 2:13)

• "The seventh one in line from Adam, Enoch, prophesied also regarding [the wicked]."-JUDE 14.

More important, Jesus Christ, the most credible witness in the Bible, acknowledged the existence of Adam and Eve. When challenged on the subject of divorce, Jesus answered: "From the beginning of creation '[God] made them male and female. On this account a man will leave his father and mother, and the two will be one flesh' . . . Therefore what God yoked together let no man put apart." (Mark 10:6-9) Would Jesus use an allegory to establish a binding legal precedent? No! Jesus quoted Genesis as fact.

Summing up the Scriptural evidence, The New Bible Dictionary concludes: "The New Testament confirms the historicity of the account given in the early chapters of Genesis."

Answer 2

How old is the earth Beginning with the age of the earth, since this is the key to the other questions. Scientists have established beyond any doubt that the earth is approximately 4.54 billion years old. They have arrived at this after around two centuries of careful study, using different methods that are quite independent of each other. Some of the earliest methods only led to conclusions that the world is 'at least' a certain age, but even if these ages fell far short of what we now know, they certainly disproved that the world is only a few thousand years old

Some fundamentalist theists say that the laws of nature were dramatically changed during the biblical Flood, although there is no scientific basis for such a claim, which in any case goes against the known facts. For example, it is sometimes claimed that the biblical Flood cause major changes in the rates at which radioisotopes disintegrate, thus misleading physicists. However, the Flood could never have affected materials outside the earth, and scientists can now show that meteors, moon rocks and asteroids are approximately the same age as the earth.

Days in Genesis chapter 1

The Hebrew word for day used in Genesis chapter 1 (Hebrew: yom, spelt yud-vav-mem) means a 24-hour day. In spite of this, some Young-earth Creationists say that the author really meant an indeterminate period of time.

The Young-earth position would be helped immeasurably if the order of creation in chapter 1 were in a scientifically rational sequence, but it even has grass growing before there is a sun or moon. As the early Church Father, Origen, had to say on this (On First Principles, 3.1.1): "Now what man of intelligence will believe that the first and the second and the third day, and the evening and the morning existed without the sun and moon and stars? And that the first day if we may so call it, was even without a heaven? And who is so silly as to believe that God, after the manner of a farmer, planted a paradise eastward in Eden, and set in it a visible and palpable 'tree of life' ..."

Our common ancestorsYes, we do share a common ancestor with chimpanzees, around seven million years ago. Not only does the fossil record point in that direction, analysis of human and chimpanzee DNA shows that we diverged just 7 million years ago.

Were Adam and Eve real people
Instead of providing a technical answer to demonstrate that Adam and Even were not real people, perhaps it is better to refer to Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) who summarises it well by saying we should regard the story as a mythical yet realistic portrait of permanent truths about our humanity, rather than as a historical account of persons who led an idealised existence.