Framework hypothesis
A view held among orthodox Christians
The view that the six days of Genesis 1 are a literary framework arranging God's works by topic, not a timeline of how long creation took.
Also called: framework view, literary framework view
What it means
The framework hypothesis notes that Genesis 1 describes the earth as "formless and void" and then shows God dealing with both problems. Days one to three form realms (light, sky and sea, land); days four to six fill them (lights, birds and fish, land animals and man). On this reading, the days are a deliberate pattern, a picture of God as a workman who works for six days and rests on the seventh, rather than a record of sequence and duration.
Holders affirm that Genesis 1 is true, that God created everything, and usually that Adam was a real man. They argue that Genesis 2:5 assumes God was working through ordinary providence, such as the need for rain, during creation, which fits a longer process. They also see the Sabbath command as grounded in the pattern of God's week, not its length.
The view is held by a number of Reformed scholars and is permitted in several confessional Presbyterian bodies, though others object that it does not do justice to the narrative form of Genesis 1 or to the "six days" of the Westminster Confession.
In Scripture
The earth began formless and empty, the two problems the six days address.
No plant had sprung up because God had not yet sent rain and there was no man to work the ground.
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.
The Sabbath command follows the pattern of God's six days of work and day of rest.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 4.1
Related terms
Young-earth creationismA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that God created the world in six ordinary days, a few thousand years ago.
Old-earth creationismA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that God created the world directly and purposefully, but over a long period rather than in six ordinary days.
Theistic evolutionA view held among orthodox Christians
The view that God created life, including human bodies, through the long process of evolution that biologists describe.