Well, while I think Hahn has a lot of problems, he's not incorrect about his statement.  Pontifical Biblical Commission under St. Pius X declared that it's permissible to hold that the term "day" in the Days of Creation may not refer to a 24-hour Day, since the sun and moon weren't created until the 4th day.  But you'll notice that this inteprretation is permitted precisely due to the premise that we hold it to be fact that the Sun/Moon were not created until later.  This is the extent to which the Creation account in Genesis can be considered non-literal.

Just asking, but is also possible that the use of "day" in this context could mean an indeterminate period of time, similar to when we say, "back in the day" without at all meaning one specific day, but a season in life?

Just asking, but is also possible that the use of "day" in this context could mean an indeterminate period of time, similar to when we say, "back in the day" without at all meaning one specific day, but a season in life?

As in 1 day is as 1000 years, and 1000 years is as 1 day?

No. It is a literal 24 hr. day.

That's the most probable opinion, but the Pontifical Biblical Commission under St. Pius X permitted entertaining a metaphorical interpretation of a day which was not 24 hours.

People have to understand that this is not a license to treat the Book of Genesis as anything other than a historical text, but it's simply a metaphorical use of a single word, the term "day", in an extremely limited way.

Since the Pontifical Biblical Commission under St. Pius X permitted this, Hahn is not wrong that Catholics are permitted to hold that the days of Genesis were not 24-hour days.

This is coming from someone (myself) who holds that Father Robinson's interpretations of Scripture are heretical, that it's heretical to claim that people have been on earth for longer than about 6,000 +/- years, and a very serious error (proximate to heresy) to reject the existence of a solid / physical firmament that keeps literal physical waters off the earth from above the firmament.  So I'm not a laxist regarding the loose interpretation of Sacred Scripture, but the use of a word like day in a metaphorical sense I don't consider to be in the same category, and neither did the Pontifical Biblical Commission.

How realistic is a thousand year Sabbath?

Very if it is another metaphor for eternity in heaven.


Thanks for that link.