From what I've read, Semitic languages e.g. Hebrew are somewhat imprecise i.e. a single word can have several meanings. In ancient Egyptian, the word m's (pronounced "mes") can meaning "to be born", "to be brought forth", "to bring out" (and by the way m's is the root of the name Moses --- so you can see how this confirms the Biblical account of how he got his name). Also, notice that I spelled the word m's without any vowels, Semitic languages are like that. They wrote the consanants but left out the vowels because they thought you could figure out the meaning of the word from the context.
However, this presents a problem to English speaking believers. Our language is quite precise, so the meaning of the word that Hebrews used for "day" could also be interpreted as "age" (as in the Third Age). I could very well be that the original intent of the Biblical creation account was simply that God created the universe, then in a series of ages, put the Earth in order.
How does this solve the "begats" issue? Simple..... the geneologies skip generations. The same thing was done in ancient Egypt, when a pharaoh claimed to be the "son of .....", all he was saying was that he was descended from that pharaoh, not that he was literally the son.
Up to the time of Moses, who is credited with writing Genesis and the first five books of the Bible, the Hebrews did not have a written language. We know this because archeological remains in Egypt during the time of the settling of Egypt by the Hyksos (which were probably the same people as Joseph and his brothers) show no writing at all. Moses, on the other hand was raised in the Egyptian court and thus could read and write. Perhaps this is where the Hebrew alphabet came from i.e. it is a form of Egyptian writing known as "hieratic" or "demotic" which was a shorthand version of the hieroglyph writing of the Egyptians.
However, this presents a problem to English speaking believers. Our language is quite precise, so the meaning of the word that Hebrews used for "day" could also be interpreted as "age" (as in the Third Age). I could very well be that the original intent of the Biblical creation account was simply that God created the universe, then in a series of ages, put the Earth in order.
How does this solve the "begats" issue? Simple..... the geneologies skip generations. The same thing was done in ancient Egypt, when a pharaoh claimed to be the "son of .....", all he was saying was that he was descended from that pharaoh, not that he was literally the son.
Up to the time of Moses, who is credited with writing Genesis and the first five books of the Bible, the Hebrews did not have a written language. We know this because archeological remains in Egypt during the time of the settling of Egypt by the Hyksos (which were probably the same people as Joseph and his brothers) show no writing at all. Moses, on the other hand was raised in the Egyptian court and thus could read and write. Perhaps this is where the Hebrew alphabet came from i.e. it is a form of Egyptian writing known as "hieratic" or "demotic" which was a shorthand version of the hieroglyph writing of the Egyptians.
