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.




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