Evening (עֶ֤רֶב) and Morning (בֹ֖קֶר)

A Multidisciplinary Contextualized Analysis of Select Passages From Genesis V2.0

[This is an excerpt from an exhaustive personal study of most of the first 9 chapters of the book of Genesis. This is a vastly expanded effort from the original version that can currently be found here downloadable for free. The purpose of this exercise is to compare a non-symbolic literal reading of the text to our current understanding of language, paleontology, and the physical sciences. Constructive discussion on the merits of this study is encouraged!]

The traditional argument in support of the “calendar day” interpretation of “Yom” (יום‎) is Genesis 1:5b which reads, “There was evening (“Erev” עֶ֤רֶב) and there was morning (“Boker”), the first [era] (“Yom” יום‎).” Each of the six eras of creation includes this statement in its closer. A casual reading of Genesis 1 would lead one to conclude this is loosely referring to the passing of a day. Additionally, that the calendar day in Jewish traditional timekeeping begins at sunset (also “Erev” עֶ֤רֶב), these verses are cited as the inspiration for that practice.

However, this utilization of the terms “Erev” and “Boker” is unique in all of the Bible to this first chapter of Genesis. The terms are rarely coincident, and even then are never used together to describe the passing or definition of a day. One might argue that the Genesis author simply decided to describe the passage of a day in that fashion, but Leviticus 23:32 explicitly defines that a ceremonial day is to take place “from evening to evening”. That tradition credits the Pentateuch with having one author (Moses), it is curious that there would be such a strange deviation in word selection if Genesis 1 and Leviticus 23 were both describing the same thing.

In Hebrew, “Erev” (עֶ֤רֶב) and “Boker”(בֹ֖קֶר) are used specifically for the period of dusk and that of daybreak. And if taken literally, defining a period of time from “evening” to “morning” is only describing the nighttime portion of the 24 hour day. This peculiarity defies the common view that, “And there was evening ( עֶ֤רֶב “Erev”) and there was morning (“Boker” בֹ֖קֶר),” is a symbolic reference to the traditional observation of days implying a different meaning entirely:

Work By Day, Rest By Night

Although these Genesis passages are often referenced as the biblical rationale for the Jewish dusk-to-dusk timekeeping tradition, the practice may very well have simply originated organically. Even today, it is practical for reasons of personal safety to return to and secure one’s home before sunset. And as for the traditional observation of the Sabbath, celebrations, and holidays, again there is a practicality of ending regular work and retreating to a place of safety or community before darkness falls.

That isn’t to say there was no activity after sunset. The evening meal was often at night as were public community celebrations. Throughout the Bible, day-long or multi-day observations such as the Sabbath, Passover, Sukkot, and others are prescribed to take place “from evening ( עֶ֤רֶב “Erev”) to evening ( עֶ֤רֶב “Erev”)” (Leviticus 23:32). This is one of the few clear suggestions for how to demarcate days.

Again, this is not the wording used in Genesis 1. Nor was the “evening to evening” calendar day defined anywhere in the bible outside of the observation of ceremonies or the Sabbath. There does not seem to be any compelling reason for the story of the “Yom” of creation to be associated with the Jewish observation of the start and finish of a calendar day.

So why “Boker” (בֹ֖קֶר)? Why is it not “from evening ( עֶ֤רֶב “Erev”) to evening ( עֶ֤רֶב “Erev”)” as all other calendar day observances are? First it is important to realize we are not dealing with literal calendar days throughout Genesis 1 as discussed previously. But that does leave several possibilities:

As is practical for humans, it is during the daytime that most work is performed. In the evening, one returns home for rest or recreation until morning. That the “evening to morning” implication is “and-ed” to each “Yom” implies the actions being described in the verses just before took place during the unspecified “daytime” work period. Then, after the creative workday for God had ended, the remainder of that “Yom” may have been a period of respite.

This linear reading of the verses would make God’s creative practice resemble that of the common man. He works during the daytime and, seeing that what He has done is complete, retires at the onset of evening until the next morning which rounds out the “day”. This oddly enough implies that each “Yom” is from sunrise to sunrise (“Boker” בֹ֖קֶר to “Boker” בֹ֖קֶר), not evening to evening (“Erev” עֶ֤רֶב to “Erev” עֶ֤רֶב ) as is the traditional observation.

This observation does suggest a calendar day interpretation of the terms included, and this interpretation is largely focused on a frank and linear reading of scripture. However, there are clear paleontological and cosmological similes to each “Yom” being a period of notable change followed by a relatively stable period.

The theory of punctuated equilibrium proposed by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould is based on the observation that there are extended periods with little morphological change that are “punctuated” by intermittent evolutionary bursts. Out of respect for Gould’s inclusion in this scripture study, he had written that, “Since we proposed punctuated equilibria to explain trends, it is frustrating to be quoted again and again by creationists—whether through design or ignorance, I do not know—as admitting that the fossil record includes no transitional forms. The fossil record does include many such forms, but they are transitions between larger groups, not species.”

That being said, Genesis does not explicitly track the roughly half-dozen major “punctuations” evolutionary biologists have identified. Also, I’ve suggested that for literary reasons the scope of the narrative shifts by reducing scale. However it does appear that the apex creatures of each paleontological era generally resemble those suggested in Genesis and loosely in that order. When one includes cosmic epochs, there is also “punctuation” at that scale since the emergence of each new property dominates the universe before shifting to the next organizational “equilibrium”. While scientists suggest several motivators for these notable shifts in cosmic and biological evolutionary pressure, the result is nonetheless a sudden period of notable diversification followed by one of evolutionary rest.

Anti-Entropic Interpretation

Like other terms in Hebrew, “Boker” (בֹ֖קֶר) and “Erev” ( עֶ֤רֶב ) share root meanings with other words which may imply additional context. “Erev” suggests a state of mixed or unidentifiable homogeneousness which is analogous to the difficulty of defining objects at night. Exodus 12:38 and Numbers 11:4 support the Biblical use of “Erev” (עֵ֫רֶב variant) translated to mean “mixed”.

“Boker”, if following “Erev” in the aforementioned context, would likely translate to read “clarification” or “distinction”. I am not aware of any use of “Boker” (בֹ֖קֶר) in the Bible being commonly translated with any meaning other than “morning”, however there is no use of the term in conjunction with “Erev” in the unique phrasing and context of Genesis 1.

Therefore, translating Genesis 1:5b to read, “There was mixture (“Erev” עֶ֤רֶב) and there was clarification (“Boker” בֹ֖קֶר), the first era (“Yom” יום‎),” is supportably valid. Each “Yom” verse acts like a sub-subscript summarizing the results of God’s actions.

This is not unlike how our universe at its very beginning was hypothetically full of primordial energy (Higgs Boson or otherwise) which transmitted into photons and a variety of other self-organizing fundamental particles. Next, those particles gathered into the atoms and masses which absorbed many of those same photons to begin the cosmic dark age. Then, spontaneous fine imperfections in this homogeneous field of particles precipitated into galaxies and solar systems. And, finally, how increasingly complex chains of organic chemicals in at least one of these systems organized into ever evolving forms of life. By all scientific standards, our existence has been a process of spontaneous anti-entropic organization of energies from homogeneous states into increasingly well-defined ones.

The transitioning from “Erev” to “Boker” across each era mirrors current cosmological theory which suggests the universe was homogeneous but distilled into the zoo of particles we observe today. And for a brief time the universe was full of light to the point of being opaque, but in time the light was absorbed to the point of providing clarity to space. This is evidenced by the CMB and is the prevalent view of the early universe. This also suggests that this very specific usage of “Erev” followed by the scarcely used “Boker” (בֹ֖קֶר) describes incremental discrimination and order being applied.

Series Of Dreams

If Genesis was revealed to the author as a set of dreams, perhaps those visions took place over a series of nights. . Might it be that, “And there was evening and there was morning,” is meant to reflect that each vision of creation was received on a different night?

Since the first chapter de facto describes a period of history before humankind would have existed, this consideration reflects on how the story came to be. To approach the creation narrative as more than fiction made out of plain cloth, then the story prior to Adam could not have been a first person account. That Genesis 1 follows each segment of the story by mentioning an overnight period might be an overly succinct way of stating “I witnessed this in a dream.” This is a repeated source of revelation as declared by God in Numbers 12:6 and reflected in Daniel 7:1.

Again, the word usage here is unique with no clear literary parallels anywhere else in the Bible. However, it is also unique to have an account of a time before humans where all other narratives after Genesis chapter 1 are entirely about humans.

Which interpretation is stronger?

The relational “Work by day, rest by night” interpretation reflects some scientific truth in the punctuated equilibrium theory of biological evolution and cosmic epochs. The terms “Erev”, “Boker”, and “Yom” translated as “evening”, “morning”, and “day” appeal to this both truthful and metaphoric interpretation. Additionally, this leverages a strictly serial reading of the verses in Genesis 1 with nighttime rounding out the era.

The “Anti-Entropic” interpretation makes the case for using the less considered translations for “Erev”, “Boker”, and “Yom” (mixed, clarified, era). These valid alternates literally describe a change from homogeneous energy to organized systems over indeterminate periods. Literarily, this makes the phrase, “There was “Erev” and there was “Boker”,” a sub-subscript for each “Yom”. This kind of nested subscript is also found in other genealogies. For example, for each of the individuals named in Genesis 5, “All of the days of [named] were [number] years, then he died,” which parallels the summary format of each Genesis 1 “Yom”. This is the most technically literal interpretation.

The series of dreams is another hypothesis that considers how we could have an account of a time before man existed to witness it. This interpretation assumes a matter of fact report of the vision as it was perceived.

Whether the preference is for a compelling simile or something more scientifically literal, they all have technical merits. In any case, these interpretations on a straight reading considering the original Hebrew are clearly more applicable than the traditional symbolic interpretations claiming to be the inspiration for “evening to evening” day observation, in support of a literal calendar day, or treating Genesis 1 as strictly allegory.