Tuesday 1 April 2014

Original Light and the Sun in Creation

Some critics of the creation account in Genesis 1 have said that the account about light, and about the night and day cycle being made a few days before the sun, moon and stars were made, is an account written in an age when people had no concept that the sun is the source of daylight and that the position of the sun is the reason for the night and day cycle.

But the account actually says that the greater light (the sun), made on the fourth day, was made to give light on the earth. So they knew the sun was the source of daylight.

And it says the lights (including the sun) were to have the function of dividing between night and day. That is, they knew the position of the sun was the reason for the night and day cycle.

They knew the sun, made on the fourth day, became the source of light and the cause of the night and day cycle. Yet light and the night and day cycle was said to be already in existence since the first day. 

Therefore the mention of light and of the night and day cycle on the first day of creation, a few days before the creation of the lights (the sun and moon) for daylight and for the night and day cycle was not an expression of any misconception about such things. 

The meaning is that whatever the source, form or position of light was, and whatever the cause of the night and day cycle was on days one to three, the sun instead became the source and form of daylight from the fourth day onwards, and its position became the cause of the ongoing night and day cycle. 

Perhaps light existed in a not-so-organised form on days one to three and was later organised into the sun, moon and stars. 

Or perhaps the source of the light on days one to three ceased altogether after the sun assumed that role on day four.  

It's like an electrician coming into a dark room to install lights. The first thing he does is turn on his light. Then once he's installed the lights in their positions, it is those lights which carry on giving light to the room. But he needed light to begin with in the first place. 

In any case, the author of Genesis 1 wouldn't have written a contradiction. The text couldn't have gained such acceptance, if it is a contradiction. He knew what he was writing. And readers didn't have a problem with it. 

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