Another Genesis Bible Question Series THREE?

Question

First i am neither christian or atheist - but have , obviously, read the bible....
In genesis, it states:

Genesis ch 1 verse 3: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light

Genesis ch 1 verses 14 - 18: 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:
And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
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.
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
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.

How is it possible that light was created before the sun? This is a serious question, if i knew the answer i would not ask. Please see my other ?'s.

to JOSH - yes i can accept that ... still in verse three, there was light.. then in verse 14 there were stars..

to ydoncha .. well i am forced to put these questions in series, since in one of my questions, i asked 5 questions in my text about genesis, and the people just could not handle it.. citing it was just too much for them to answer lol

to TUBE DUDE - i do not think "the light" was literal? I asked that question to a preist, and he stated that the "light" from jesus is speaking of the heart and feelings therein once you are saved - example "I have seen the light".

Answer 1

Put it in perspective -- these are the writings of a bunch of sheepherders and nomads from a Bronze Age backwater thousands of years ago. They simply had no way of knowing that the sky WASN'T simply a dome over a flat earth, or that the sun DOESN'T go around the earth (or that demonic possession DOESN'T cause mental illness, or that bats AREN'T actually a type of bird, or any of the hundreds of fallacies or factualy errors in the bible....)

Answer 2

Well, from what I can gather from all the commentaries and concordances that I just raced through, you are not the only person to have been caught curious by this seeming contradiction.

One can not consider God's creation of light(s) without also pondering verses 4-13 which you have left out (Most likely for the sake of space).

But it appears to me that in the beginning was "darkness" and God created "Light" not that this meant it was honed into any particular source as of yet, but simply that light was created.

He then separated the light from the darkness Verse 4; "And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness." [Because at that moment it would have all been intermixed having been created over the existence of darkness].

Verse 5 continues: "God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day."

This in no way implies the need for light and day to have been narrowed down into the source of a Sun and or a Moon, but simply that light and darkness now both existed in some way and that God had separated them for the time being.

Later in verse 14 God creates "light(s)" [plural] meaning the Sun, Moon and Stars to help direct and schedule this light source for us that He had created earlier in verse 3.

He explains in verse 15 that these "lights" are designed to shed light on the earth and that he specified a greater light to rule by day and a lesser light to rule by night. [Which I am glad for since I can't sleep in the day time.]

He also says in verse 14 that the stars would be used to signal the seasons. (We know that the earth rotates and the patterns in the stars appear at different times of the year, which can be used for determining time for us [Not that God needs a watch].

To me, Light can exist without a sun or a moon. The fact that a sun and moon and starts were created to help us UTILIZE THE LIGHT that God had created earlier is just another example of how God cares for us down to EVERY LAST DETAIL.

Not to mention that there is a whole other aspect to LIGHT and DARK that represents the very important lesson we must learn about the existence of Good verses Evil. (But that is not what you were asking about)

Answer 3

In verse 3 the Hebrew word is or with a little carrot symbol over the o which mean illumination or light

in 14-18 the Hebrew word used for light is maor with carrot over o again. This means light source.

I heard it explained like this and it made sense. Someone says, "Turn on the light" The light is considered the switch on the wall by it also produces light. Same word two different meanings.

God created the light(or) and the He created the light sources (maor) sun, moon, and stars, that would govern the light.

It is important to have the Hebrew or Greek of the word and the meaning, because the English language doesn't do the Hebrew language justice.

Answer 4

Q: How is it possible that light was created before the sun? This is a serious question, if i knew the answer i would not ask.

A: Jesus was and is the light.

Revelation 21:23, "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."

Answer 5

Well, if you're going to take the Genesis account literally as you seem to be, then there is actually a GREAT need for light to have been created that did not come directly from the stars.

Science tells us that many of the stars we see are not just thousands, but millions of light-years away from us. Yet biblical accounts seem to indicate that the universe is only a few thousand years old. If the biblical account is literally true in that sense, then ALL the light we see from stars that are more than a few thousand light-years away from us (almost all of them) would have to have been created 'en route' and not generated by a star directly.

And that's a lot of light!

Answer 6

Lets look at the Big Bang. This says there was a lot of concentrated energy in a small space, hot energy. This would have given off light. Later the sun and moon formed.
Spiritually, The Light is God's shikina (sp?) glory... as was in the temple. God existed before all else.

Answer 7

God is the only Living God. He knew that even the suns energy traveling at the speed of light would take time to reach the earth he was about to create. God is so awesome that he is beyond our three dimensions, TIME SPACE & MATTER. God was able to make light BEFORE he made the sun. For better understanding, visit www.khouse.org and search for genesis. Also, read a book called "The Biblical Basis of Modern Science." I love that book.

Please don't believe that the true Bible has any contradictions, there may be spots you don't understand at first, but I promise that if you take time to study it, and re-read you will begin to understand. God doesn't have to operate under the limits humans have and so he can do things that just don't make sense to us, although his actions are always good and for the betterment of his creation.

[e-mail] if you want to talk more.

Answer 8

i think that the light that god was talking about is the moon and the sun. the sun is the light in the day and the moon and the stars give light in the night. because remember in that same chapter i think hew said that when he created the heaven and the earth they were in total darkness and that is why he created the moon and the sun

Answer 9

Revelation 21:22-24
22I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.

Answer 10

The sun is not the ultimate origin of light. For instance there are a lot of stars older than our sun. Light from those stars are only just now reaching us. Therefore light could have and did exist far longer than the sun. You don't even have to be religious to accept that.

Answer 11

I believe the darkness lit by the sun or the moon or the stars is light compared to the real darkness of eternity with out God.