The days of creation present themselves _as days of God_, which as such _differ from the creative days of earth_ by the fact that with them the _day_ and the _work of the day_ are absolutely identical. In the creative days, the day and the work of the day are always different from one another; the days come and go as temporal frames which include everything that happens during these days, whether we know it or not. Now we may turn our attention to and mention ever so many works of an earthly day: there always happen innumerable other things which also belong within the frame of that day and which are only not observed by us. It is quite another thing with those Biblical days of creation: here the day _begins_ with the beginning of the day's work; it _exists_ and _passes on_ single and alone in the course of the work of the day, and it comes to an end when the day's work is completed, and the work of the following day begins: it comes to an end with "evening and morning." We also lay some stress, though not very much, upon the fact that, in the account, that which makes and regulates the _earthly_ day is created not before the fourth day of creation, Genesis I, 14: "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven _to divide the day from the night_; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and _for days_ and years." We admit that if we were obliged for other reasons to suppose that the author of the account took the days of creation as common earthly days of twenty-four hours, we must and should find it possible that the author had been able to {300} suppose the existence and the course of such earthly days even _before_ the creation of sun, moon, and stars; for he certainly could not yet have the scientific perception that the sun with its light and the rotation of the earth were the only cause of an earthly day. But it is easier and more natural for us to bring that passage, Genesis I, 14, into accord with the conception that the days of creation are divine days which, as such, are different from creative days, and on one of which God also created that which originates creative days.