5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
COMMENTARY: 1:5 God called: This act demonstrates His sovereign dominion over His Creation. In the Semitic world the naming of something or someone was the token of lordship. Reuben changed the names of the cities of the Amorites after he had conquered them (Numbers 32:38). Likewise, Pharaoh Necho changed Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim after he defeated the Judea king (2 Kings 23:34). Day (Hebrew. yom): Apart from the use of the word day in verse 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, and 31, where it describes the days of Creation, it is used in at least four ways in the first two chapters of Genesis: (1) the 12 hour period of daylight as opposed to night (vv. 14, 16, 18); (2) a soar day of 24 hours (v.14); (3) the period of light that began with the creation of light on the first day (v.5); and (4) the entire, six-day creative period (2:4). Everywhere in the Pentateuch the word day when used (a here) with a definite article or numerical adjective means a solar day or a normally calibrated, 24-hour day. Thus, the biblical account of Creation clearly indicates that God created the world in six literal days (cf. Exodus 20:11).
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