Does Mark 10:6 imply a short (literal) creation week?

Question

In speaking about marriage and divorce, Jesus takes the Pharisees back to the beginning in Mark 10:6 (NKJV, emphasis mine):

"But from the beginning of the creation [αρχης κτισεως], God ‘made them male and female.’"

The Greek phrase αρχης κτισεως appears in two other passages of Scripture (NKJV, emphasis mine):

"For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation [αρχης κτισεως] which God created until this time, nor ever shall be." (Matt. 13:19)

and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation [αρχης κτισεως]." (2 Pet. 3:4)

In Mark 10:6, does "the beginning of the creation" refer to the creation of the Universe? If so, does Jesus' placing of the creation at "the beginning" suggest that humankind was created during the beginning of the Universe? To explain, within the interpretive framework of a literal week, Day 6 (or any day for that matter) could easily be called "the beginning of the creation." However, if the days involved ages of time, Day 6 (when mankind was created, Gen. 1:26-31) would seem to be many ages after "the beginning of the creation," placing the day more toward recent times.

Does Jesus' language, therefore, imply a short, literal creation week in which even Day 6 happened toward "the beginning of the creation"?

Note: In keeping with the policy of the Hermenutics Stack Exchange, this question is not about whether the earth is old or young; I'm not even asking whether the Bible teaches that the earth is old or young. Instead, I'm asking if Mark 10:6 in particular implies a literal creation week with its quotation from Genesis 1:27 (which, in context, is Day 6), a verse Jesus says happened at "the beginning of the creation" (NKJV).

Answer 1

The OP's question is quite specific - does Mark 10:6 imply a six-day creation?

Answer - no it does not - a six day creation is not mentioned, so it is neither confirmed nor denied.

What is confirmed is the following:

• God created all things
• man and woman were created near the beginning of the creation of the world
• Mankind was created in a sexually binary form - male and female.

That is all.

The closest we get to creation in six days is Heb 4:4, but only obliquely:

For somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this manner: “And on the seventh day God rested from all His works.”

In fact, the NT never mentions six days of creation week anywhere. However, we do have one more allusion to creation week but it is quite indirect:

Rev 14:7 - Worship the One who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters.”

This appears to be an allusion to the fourth commandment in Ex 20:11 -

For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

Again, this is an indirect allusion - there is no direct allusion to six-day creation in the NT.

Matt 19:4 quotes Gen 1:27 about the creation on the sixth day; and Matt 19:5 quotes Gen 2:24, but again, this is quite indirect. Despite this, it does confirm Jesus' belief in the veracity and literal nature of the Genesis creation record.

APPENDIX - Six days of creation

While the NT never mentions six days of creation, there are plenty of OT texts that do:

• Gen 1 - the original record of six days of creation
• Ex 20:11 - seventh day Sabbath is the memorial of creation in six days
• Ex 31:15 - essentially the same as Ex 20:11
• Ex 16:26 - Sabbath command repeated about manna
• Ex 23:12 - ditto
• Ex 34:21 - ditto
• Lev 23:3 - ditto
• Deut 5:13 - ditto

Answer 2

Does "the creation" refer to the creation of the Universe?

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de arches ktisews undoubtedly means 'from beginning of creation'. It can mean nothing else.

Had Jesus of Nazareth meant to infer 'the beginning of the creation of humanity' he would have, necessarily, added some more vocabulary or grammar.

That 'creation' lacks an article indicates that Jesus is expressing the concept of creation, as such. The absolute concept 'creation' means, unavoidably, all creation. The creation of all things.

Thus Jesus of Nazareth, in these words, places the creation of humanity at the beginning of creation, and the 'foundational' beginning at that, as the word arche has a depth and breadth of meaning that implies a substantial, foundational statis resulting in other processes following on from that foundational event or appointment.

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Thayer (Biblehub) :

1 Beginning, origin

a) ἀρχή used absolutely, of the beginning of all things: ... Mark 10:6 ...

Answer 3

The passage does not take a position on this issue. Jesus speaks of the beginning of creation, but does not specify the beginning of the creation of what. The creation of the universe? Life on earth? Humans?

The Greek word in Mark, as well as in the parallel passage in Matthew, is ἀρχή, meaning beginning or origin (it can also be used figuratively to mean the "foremost") (source). It need not refer to an absolute beginning.

Additional detail is provided by Matthew in the same context:

He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so (Matthew 19:8)

This suggests the context is the beginning of humanity or, more precisely, the beginning of marriage. The message here is that marriage between man & woman--and its importance--is not something that was invented or contrived partway through the human experience--it is an original and fundamental part of what God created.

Jesus compares and contrasts the practices of marriage in His day & in Moses' day, with the way God set it up in the beginning. Absent any reason to believe that galaxies/stars/planets were getting married & divorced, the beginning this passage has in mind is the family of Adam & Eve.