[flevit]

appearance of great age: would be a tradition/interpretation of man. something that man teaches. (oh but there is also the whole God will use what is foolishness in the world to humble the wise)

yes Yom, just like "Day" in english can either a literal day or a non literal time period. it is discerned by the context of the writing.
why wouldn't you use the biblical writers to help figure out the intent and context of Genesis? would God deceive all the biblical writers?
(whether it disagrees with "science" is a separate question)

IE..find the writers that refer/quote back to Genesis 1-12 and see if they took at as Plainly written...if you do you will find even Jesus and NT writers, quotes it as plain TRUTH, not only that but a foundation for his purpose and an example by which the Jews set up their work week.

[DallasMike]

IE..find the writers that refer/quote back to Genesis 1-12 and see if they took at as Plainly written...if you do you will find even Jesus and NT writers, quotes it as plain TRUTH, not only that but a foundation for his purpose and an example by which the Jews set up their work week.

Can you show me one instance where a Biblical writer said something on the order that each day of creation was a literal 24-hour day? The problem (for the Young Earth Creationists, anyway) is that you can't.

[DallasMike]

would God deceive all the biblical writers?

No, he wouldn't. I think that the Biblical writers fully understood that yom is a flexible word.

However, I also don't think that he would deceive earth's scientists by creating a galaxy 1 million light years away and then creating the light waves from that galaxy 99.9999% on the way to earth. Nor do I think that he would add an exta 100,000 layers of winter/summer ice to Greenland.