WHAT LIGHT DIVIDED DAY FROM NIGH IN THE FIRST DAY OF CREATION IF THE SUN AND THE MOON APPEARED ON THE FOURTH DAY
Many new converts ask this question when they read the
account of Creation in Genesis 1:3-5 and 1:14-19:
GENESIS 1:3-5
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there
was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light
from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
GENESIS 1:14-19
And God said, “Let there be lights in the
expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for
signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the
expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God
made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser
light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the
heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night,
and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And
there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
INTERPRETATIONS
Many have given distinct answers to these verses; from
the traditional Jewish version that it was the divine light of God (1), to modern
revisionists that attribute these verses to primitive legends of pagan origin, adapted
to Judaism by their priesthood (2), specially since science now knows the Earth
to revolve around the Sun, being this Sun much older in existence than the
Earth, making impossible the idea that the Sun and Moon came into existence on
the fourth day of creation.
However, the orthodox interpretation is different.
WHAT IT MEANS
The Bible indicates that God created Earth and Heavens in
relation to each other, making them interconnected and interdependent from one
another (Genesis 1:1). But the ordination of the elements of this creation, came
in a gradual way
(Genesis 1:2-31).
The Bible also states that while humans did not exist, a
dense mist covered the whole planet (Genesis 2:6).
When God dissipated the darkness (choshek – וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ)
that covered the planet, He
obviously did it by creating the Sun and the Moon, but those bodies were hidden
from natural eyes under the heavy gaseous water that covered the Earth, being only
possible to perceive the light they gave, without been visible.
It is only later, when God cleared the atmosphere,
that the Sun and the Moon became visible from the planet, not that they were
created then.
When Genesis speaks of the Sun and the Moon, it says that
He ‘Let to be’ or ‘Let to pass’ ( יְהִ֤י – Haya),
and not the word ‘Bara' (בָּרָ֣א), which means to ‘create or shape’ .
In other words,
God did not ‘create’ the Sun, Moon and the stars on the fourth day, but only made
them visible from Earth, then.
Omar Flores.
(2)
What are the J, E, and P Texts of Genesis?, Dr.
L. Kip Wheeler. https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/Genesis_texts.html, 2018.
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