Professors: A Day Means a Day!

Originally published in Creation 16, no 3 (June 1994): 44.

Charles Darwin observed coral atolls in the south seas which were more than 1,000 metres (3,000 feet) thick. He believed that this proved that millions of years must have elapsed.

Dr John R. Howitt, a personal friend of mine ... wrote to appropriate professors in nine leading universities, asking, “Do you consider that the Hebrew word yom (day), as used in Genesis 1, accompanied by a numeral should properly be translated as

  1. a day as commonly understood,
  2. an age,
  3. either a day or an age without preference?”

‘Oxford and Cambridge did not reply, but the professors at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Toronto, London, McGill, and Manitoba replied unanimously that it should be translated as a day as commonly understood. Professor Robert H. Pfeiffer of Harvard added, “of twenty-four hours” to his reply.’

Dr Bolton Davidheiser, A Statement Concerning the Ministry of Dr Hugh Ross, published by the author.

Editor’s note:

This was also reported in a 1981 anti-evolution booklet written anonymously by Dr Howitt lest he lose his job.

Oxford University Hebrew Professor, James Barr, is even more adamant that the days are ordinary days, stating that he knows of no other Professor of Hebrew at any world-class university who would say otherwise. (See The Answers Book (Revised Edition), Master Books, El Cajon (California), 1991, p. 90.)

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