[JamesP81]

And anyway, how is one to determine the literalist vs the metaphorical meaning of a passage?

I got much of my information from a Hebrew scholar when I attended a lecture about him. Unfortunately for me, I can't remember his name, but I know that he did one of the most exhaustive studies of the hebrew word 'yom' and Genesis 1 that has ever been done. Pretty much all Jewish scholars will tell you, whether they agree with the OT or not, that Genesis was intended to be taken as a 7-day creation. I can't verify this myself, since I don't speak hebrew.

I'll try this evening to find out this scholar's name, if you're interested in it.

And finally, even if the creationist view is correct, why did the sacred author of Genesis adopt THIS way of describing the phases of creation? Why 7 days? why not 10? or 50? or 365?

At the risk of sounding like a mystic, for some reason God seems like things in groups of 3, 7, and 12. (The 12 Apostles, 7-day week, and the Trinity are good examples). But to answer your question, I really don't know why He would choose seven days.

[Remole]

Let me tell you why Genesis 1 presents creation in terms of a 7 day period of time. Because the 7 day week was already in existence in the Ancient Near East. What Ancient Israel did during the Exile [or, at least, the leading lights of Ancient Israel] is to adopt an already existing 7-day scheme and "sanctified" it by showing that 1 day is to be set aside for the honor of the Creator--the glory of the Creator having just been outlined in the previous description. Why Creation in 6 days? because it leads up to the 7th.