Even as late as the sixties and seventies of the last century this question was still so unsettled as to warrant the publication of books defending the Mosaic account of creation.[A]
[Footnote A: For instance Aids to Faith, containing McCaul's most able discussion. The Origin of the World, J. W. Dawson.]
[Sidenote: Joseph Smith's teachings concerning creation found in the Book of Abraham.]
In 1830, certain visions, given to the Jewish lawgiver Moses, were revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith. These visions are now incorporated with other matter in the Pearl of Great Price, under the title, The Book of Moses. In chapter two of this book is found an account of the creation, which is nearly identical with the account found in Genesis 1. The slight variations which occur tend only to make the meaning of the writer clearer. In this account, the expression "and the evening and the morning were the first [etc.] day," occurs just as it does in the Mosaic account in the Bible. In 1835, certain ancient records found in the catacombs of Egypt fell into the hands of Joseph Smith, who found them to be some of the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt. The translation of these records is also found in the Pearl of Great Price, under the title, The Book of Abraham. In the fourth and fifth chapters of the book is found an account of the creation according to the knowledge of Abraham. The two accounts are essentially the same, but the Abrahamic version is so much fuller and clearer that it illumines the obscurer parts of the Mosaic account. We shall concern ourselves here only with the variation in the use of the word "day."
[Sidenote: The Book of Abraham conveys the idea that the creative periods included much time.]
In Genesis 1:5 we read, "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the fist day." The corresponding period is discussed in the Book of Abraham 4:5 as follows: "And the Gods called the light Day, and the darkness they called Night. And it came to pass that from the evening until the morning they called night; and from the morning until the evening they called day; _and this was the first, or the beginning, of that which they called night and day."_