The fact that there are obvious problems with taking the order of events depicted in Genesis 1 in literal, chronological fashion (e.g. light is created and days pass before the sun is made) should immediately suggest the possibility that the order and structure have some other purpose than chronology in mind. If we set the days side by side, we immediately see a parallelism between days 1-3 of creation and days 4-6:
Forming-------------------
Day 1: light & dark, day & night------------>Day 4: sun, moon, stars
Day 2: waters above & below-------------->Day 5: birds and fish/sea animals
Day 3: dry land----------------------
Day 7: Sabbath rest
By looking at the structure of this passage and its description of the seven days of creation, we see that the emphasis lies, not on the order of events in which creation took place, but on the completeness of it. God made all places, and all things that dwell in them. This parallelism certainly alerts us to the very real possibility that the order of the days intends to emphasize something other than the chronological order of events.
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