Genesis 1:14-19
| DAY 4. THE LIGHTS AND STARS | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← 3 Dry land and vegetation | 5 Water and air creatures → | |
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Historical Christadelphian Views
See at Historical Christadelphian Approaches - 3.
Sources of Light in the Bible
If the sun is created on Day 4, what is the light on Day 1?
- Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber answers this question here. A brief quotation:
"In [the ancient cosmologist's] conception, the earth is the center of the universe, and the sun, moon and stars travel above it, in the firmament. When this ancient cosmologist asked himself why the day-time sky is blue, his answer was because there is light in the heavenly water above the firmament. As he would have seen from earth, water is blue and thus when the light enters the water, the sky looks blue. When the light leaves the water and darkness creeps in, it is black."
The Four Sources of Light
The sources of light as understood in Bible times were:
- the day: skylight, as visible in the "firmament" before dawn and after sunset
- the sun
- the moon
- the stars
See at Ecclesiastes 12:2 and The Firmament — especially here and here.
Is a literal reading possible?
Is a literal reading of v. 16 possible? If we believe in the "Four Sources of Light" (see above) we can consistently believe that trees were bearing fruit before the Sun existed (though perhaps not "in season"!) but this cannot be reconciled easily with the age of the Sun and stars as understood by modern science. On the other hand, a literal reading is less difficult if we take ancient beliefs about the shape of the earth into consideration.
See discussion and links at Creation in six days? It is not possible to reconcile a literal reading of verse 16, with the stars being made on the same day as the sun and moon, after the dry land appeared and trees bearing fruit in season were created on the previous day, with the science that deduces that the stars were made billions of years before the earth, by observing phenomena which are best explained by three generations of stars, each going through life cycles measured in billions of years since the first stars were created.
A possible harmonisation
The verb עשה (asah — see Created, Formed and Made) translated make ("made") in verse 4 is very general in meaning, and could mean "appointed" or the like, as John Walton says with reference to the whole chapter. We would need to read the sequence of verses 16 and 17 as a hendyadis and not literally, and the previously created stars would have been moved into the firmament from where they had been earlier, when they rejoice at the creation of the earth. This harmonisation might be less easy if we are also fudging the meaning of "firmament". — Bruce
The Firmament
In ancient cosmology the stars were set in the Firmament, as we read in these verses. Thus the Throne of God, set on the firmament, is above the stars — see, for example, Ezekiel 1:26. In Isaiah 14:13 the king of Assyria is accused of wanting to set his throne "above the stars of God". — Bruce
