Actually the earth was created on day 1.
Light was also created on and separated from darkness on day 1.
With the Earth spinning on its axis, the days are 24 hour days.
That is why each day ends with “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” And so on through the 6th day.
Thanks for correcting me on the fact that the earth was created "without form" on the first day, but it was the sun that was created on the fourth day. This is the first 4 days in the King James Version (
from here):
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
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:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Note that the the earth had grass on the third day but no sun until the fourth day. I'm willing to say that I'm not saying how that's possible. This will probably just increase my very long list of things that I don't understand in the Bible. I am willing to say there are somethings in the Bible that I don't (yet) understand.
I am not willing add made up things like a 24 hour day and the earth's axis on the first day. We need to be humble and accept reality as it is.
Additional notes, three things to add:
one is that there can be grass before the sun because what's been observed is that our sun is a second generation sun, that was formed when some other nearby star did a super nova and deposited here all the iron, carbon, phosphorous argon, etc. from which grass comes. It had to be inbound before the sun was created.
next is the fact that I've got to thank you for the stimulating thread as it's got me thinking in some new areas,
finally is that my take now is that since there can be many possible material explanations and no explicit interpretations it's becoming obvious that literal interpretations are simply not important, that the main point (and the most important thrust) is spiritual, not material.
