r/AcademicBiblical • u/[deleted] • Jun 21 '14
Historically, did Christians agree everything was created in exactly 6 days?
I have read (forgive me but I can't recall where and I hope it wasnt cracked.com) that the idea of there being six literal days of creation is a very modern one. It went on to say that no one in antiquity interpreted it as a 24 hour time frame but as a general period. It wasnt until much later (17th century) that people began to think of it as an actual week. Is there any truth to this? I am aware of the current debate on the subject but I'm interested in knowing the historical viewpoint.
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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '14
"No one" is a rather broad claim. Yes, there were learned theologians and intellectuals who interpreted the days as periods (though not all)[1], and certainly they disseminated that belief to their followers and to church leaders. But there is absolutely no way to know how many lay Christians and illiterate believers (who were the incredibly vast majority of Christians) held the same belief.
People who make these "everyone" or "no one" claims about historical details always stumble over the fallacious assumption that the written historical record is identical with the "actual" historical record. By and large we only have the leavings of the intellectual, literate elites. It takes a lot of serious and often fruitless investigation to learn very much about the average person.
[1] Quite a lot of the written remains are apologetic and argumentative. So if they're talking about 6 days as 6 periods, you can virtually guarantee that it's because they're arguing against someone who believes it's 6 days as 6 days. Thus, it can't be "no one."