DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
The third and the sixth. On the third day God gathers the waters so dry land appears, then tells the earth to put forth plants (Genesis 1:9-13). On the sixth day he makes the land animals, then the people (Genesis 1:24-31). That makes eight acts of creation in six days. John Barton, in his history of the Bible, says some think an older story of eight days lies underneath.
Why it’s interesting
Why eight acts in six days? Coogan and Chapman, in their Old Testament textbook, say it may be a writer's pattern, or a way to make the story land on the seventh day, the day of rest. You can count the acts by the words that repeat each time: God said, it was so, and God saw that it was good.
Scholarly consensus
Learn the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.