I think that Moses did know how long the days were he was referencing, though not necessarily down to the amount of years. He knew it was a long time, but not eternity. Hence, “day”, which elsewhere can mean much more time than 24 hours.

Here’s the thing that gets me: We know Jesus was at Creation doing the creating (John 1 + Proverbs 8 ). We know Jesus was with the Holy Spirit (Psalm 104). We know the Holy Spirit was hovering over the deep (Genesis 1:2). We know Jesus saw the entire earth before sunset. We know that each day ended with a sunset. We agree that each day maps to an age. To then conclude that God hovered in the sunlight until the end of that age does not seem to be that big a leap.

The reason I like this argument is because it is a literal interpretation, hence getting around a limitation that causes many scientifically-minded Christians to doubt their faith.

“ersonally, I think Moses stuck to what he knew. He didn’t know how long a day was, so he never said how long….”

It seems to me that Moses would certainly have known how long a day was. The argument you seem to be making is that he didn’t know how long the days were that he was writing about, but that just strikes me as odd. I prefer the day-age theory in the sense that a day for God is not the same as our own, and so when Moses used “day” he specifically meant it in correlation with the being he was discussing, namely, God. Perhaps this could bolster your argument as well?

Yes, I do. Personally, I think Moses stuck to what he knew. He didn’t know how long a day was, so he never said how long. But, he knew that each day was marked by evening and morning, so he wrote that. He also knew the spirit of God was hovering over the deep, so He wrote that. The rest is left for interpretation…

Consider: Does the “earth” ever experience evening? Not as a whole. A place does, but the earth does not, because it is always morning somewhere, too. Yet, we know God did His creating during the day, and that evening always followed. So, unless Genesis is purely symbolic, God must have been creating from some physical perspective… and Genesis tells us that perspective: He was hovering over the deep, and hovering provides God the ability to stay in the day until He was done, however long that would be.

Consider also: once we see that a literal interpretation implies God chose a physical perspective, it suggest He physically saw His creation as well. So, how much did God “see” before declaring it good? Some of it, or all of it? If He hovered over one spot on the earth, then He only some of it; if He hovered beneath sun, then He would have seen all of it.

Finally, who did the creating? Combining John 1 and Proverbs 8, it would appear to be Jesus. Giving Jesus a physical perspective makes complete sense. He even has physical eyes with which to see. He even uses the Holy Spirit to transport Himself sometimes, and we know the Holy Spirit was hovering, so I think Jesus was within the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit was most likely in the form of a cloud.

To truly take the Genesis account literally, this is the only interpretation I can find that works, lest it ruduce to mere allegory… and once you embrace this, then opens up the possibilities to an old earth. For me, it was unavoidable.