This is part of a conversation I had with a Catholic friend I like and admire. In his previous email, he had questioned by use of Mark 10:6 to defend the idea that Jesus believed and taught that the creation of mankind was at the beginning of Creation, as opposed to 13 billion years later. Mark 10:6 quotes Jesus who says, ““But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’”
You call into question my use of Mark 10:6 to prove Jesus took this literally. I believe my position still stands, and here is why.
A look into Bible commentary shows that the phrase “of the creation” is not even found in the oldest texts, so even if one chooses a hyper-literal interpretation, they have to wait until later editions to do so, because the older texts say “At the beginning God made them male and female” (and not “At the first moment of creation…”). Also, I have to simply argue with your assertion that a literal interpretation of Jesus words would have to mean “at the very moment” Creation began. Jesus doesn’t say that, even in the English versions based on later texts. He says From the beginning,or at the beginning, or from the beginning of creation.
It does not use CREATION as a verb, such as “From the beginning of creating,” or “When God Began Creating…” Creation is used as a noun. And the creation account in Genesis, which Jesus is clearly referring to, shows Adam and Eve being created at the beginning of the Creation- DURING the creation of the Creation in the first of 52 weeks, in the first of (at Jesus’s time) 4,000 years. 
Creation is the heavens and the earth, the sky and sea and all that live in them. The beginning of Creation was Genesis 1. Jesus meant what he said, and it does not clash with the Young Earth position at all unless you arbitrarily FORCE the words of Jesus to mean the first ACT of creation, or the first DAY of creation, when he does not say anything like it. Once again, I merely suggest we take the text as literally as the text is meant to be taken. Not more and not less. Continue reading
Why even bring up Genesis 1 if not to show that they are following a divine example? Surely even these people, without the benefit of i-phones and a public school education, could count to seven, or understand the idea of taking a day off? In other sections of the OT when God refers to a six to one ratio, such as working the land for six YEARS and then letting it rest for one YEAR, He does not bring up the creation week. If it was merely a metaphor meant to illustrate a six to one/ work to rest, then why only bring it up when He is talking about DAYS but never other lengths of time? 
