Genesis 1 · a question people ask
Were these six 24-hour days?
Protestants who take Genesis as God's word read the days in more than one way, and each reading rests on verses. What the passage says plainly isn't in question: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (1:1), and "God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (1:31).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Six ordinary days
Those who hold this view read the days as ordinary days. Each is numbered and closed with "There was evening and there was morning" (1:5), and Exodus 20:11 grounds Israel's week in God's: "for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day."
Genesis 1:5 · Genesis 1:31 · Exodus 20:9-11
Long ages
Those who hold this view read each day as a long period. They point out that the Hebrew word for day, yom, can stand for a longer time (Strong's lists "a space of time defined by an associated term"), and that Genesis 2:4 speaks of "the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens", covering the whole work of creation. They also point to Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8: "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years".
Genesis 2:4 · Psalm 90:4 · 2 Peter 3:8
A literary framework
Those who hold this view read the days as a frame that arranges creation by theme rather than as a timeline. They point to the way days 1-3 give shape to what was "formless" and days 4-6 fill what was "empty" (1:2), and to light, day and night on day 1 (1:3-5) before the lights that rule the day and the night on day 4 (1:14-19).
Genesis 1:2 · Genesis 1:3-5 · Genesis 1:14-19
God's workdays
Those who hold this view read the days as God's working week, told as a pattern for ours: like our days, but not necessarily the same length. They point to Exodus 20:9-11, where God's week is the pattern for Israel's, to the seventh day (2:1-3), which never closes with "there was evening and there was morning", and to Hebrews 4, where God's rest is one his people can still enter (4:9-10).
Genesis 2:1-3 · Exodus 20:9-11 · Hebrews 4:9-10
The verses
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
“God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.”