Certain verses in GENESIS don't make sense. Can anyone clear it up for me?

Question

In Genesis 1 God said let there be light (v.3) the 1st day. But, in verse 14 the stars & sun were created to give earth light. Where did the light in v.3 come from. Usually you create the stars & sun first, not the daylight. In v.9 water appeared over all the earth. Then dry land appeared. Usually you create the dry land first then add the water. Does this make sense?

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Answer 1

It makes more sense when you read the entire chapter.


Genesis 1 (New Living Translation)
The Account of Creation
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.[a] 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.”
And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.

6 Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” 7 And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens. 8 God called the space “sky.”
And evening passed and morning came, marking the second day.

9 Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened.

Answer 2

You are being far too literal. If you look in Genesis 2, you'll discover Adam was made before the plants were, contradicting Genesis 1. This is not an assembly manual.

What the writer is trying to show is that God created the universe in an organized fashion. Creation does not start with a blank slate but with chaos, represented by water (the kind the spirit was hovering/breathing/blowing over). Desert nomad types were terrified of large bodies of water. Day 1: light. Day 2: water split above and below the sky-dome. Day 3: land appearing in the midst of the pre-existing water. Second pass (note the pattern), Day 4: Lights to put in the light and dark. Day 5: Creatures to put in the sea and sky. Day 6: Creatures to put on the land. This shows that creation was accomplished according to a pattern, a plan, not by whim. It does not mean that's exactly how it was done. Nobody was there!

And as for Genesis 2, it's a different story, about how people came to be created as they are. It doesn't have to literally match Genesis 1. They were written to get you to think about God and creation, not report it as some dead, dry history.

Answer 3

The first three verses of Genesis is a primer for the rest of the Bible. The first verse explains how God made everything Good. The rest explains how it all went to s**t.

But, since you specifically asked... Think photons, elements, atoms, molecules, energy, etc. if you need the scientific explanation... they came first and them coalesced into stars. How do you measure a day without the sun you might ask? Apparently, atheists don't ask that question.

Then why would you assume dry land comes before fluids?

What happens to the water above the heavens, I always ask.

Atheists love to say we shouldn't discuss Genesis. So why do we still have to study Shakespeare in school, or the Constitution? Or anything for that matter? Keep reading, keep wondering and asking, and pray for understanding as you read. It keeps you more open minded than some of the jerks that "answered" your question.

Answer 4

The sun gives off light, as well as the moon and stars. If light hadn't been created first, they couldn't function as light producing entities.

Vs 6 is talking about the waters on the earth and the water canopy surrounding it.

By vs 9, Earth has already been created, and is a planet of water and land. God told the land to come forth and the water to move out of its way.

vs 11-12 cover the earth bringing forth tress, grass, etc.

vs 14-18 describes the sun, moon, and stars - how & why they were created

vs 20-25 describe the animals

vs 26-31 enter Adam & Eve & their purposes

Answer 5

I've come to believe that Genesis and a lot of earlier books in the bible were mostly oral tradition handed down for a long time before it was written down. I don't think its very orderly, however, the division between night and day makes sense, since our star system was once a binary system, that is, it had two stars, so it was feasable at one time in our planetary history, to have no night during certain seasons of the year. (Jupiter still emits light, not just reflecting it)

As for the water or dry land first or second, it could have been very marshy back then. Very marshy.

Answer 6

Oooh, I wanna answer this!

So yeah, there was light the first day. I believe it was from the sun's light, not the stars and that were mentioned on the 14th verse.

I think the stars were a nice way that God decided to make the night prettier. It looks wonderful and is really useful (... let them be signs for seasons and for days and years...).

The stars' appearance also makes it more obvious when it's day or night, though the sun's light is usually enough.

Oh, the 6th verse has water appearing already. There was water under the earth (underground), over the earth (on the surface), and above the sky, the 9th verse is when God commands the water over the earth to separate enough to let dry land appear; so before the waters over the earth were separated, it was all underwater.

It all makes sense to me, hope that helped.

Answer 7

according to my husband............
In Genesis 1 the word light means light in every sense, including lightning, and happiness. So; the opposite of "darkness" G. 1 vs.2 or the withholding of light, IE. misery,sorrow, ignorance, obscurity.
From Strong's concordance Hebrew text # 216 (light) and #2822, from 2821 (darkness).
Oh, by the way the book of Genesis is not written in chronological order. As far as the water and dry land issue, what happened is that the water was here, brought down from the birth of our atmosphere covering the whole earth and then it was separated into lakes and oceans; making mountains, deserts etc.

Answer 8

What do you mean by 'usually'? Created a few planets recently, have you? Read slower, then pray for understanding. If you don't understand the first book of the Bible, how will you ever understand the spiritual meaning of anything in there?The original scriptures of the OT were in Hebrew. In Gen.1:3 the Hebrew word for light is 'OR, referring to the initial waves of light energy coming upon the earth. Later God placed "lights" ( Hebrew word MA'OR literally meaning "light-bearers", v.14) in the heavens as permanent generators and reflectors of light waves. The primary purpose of these light-bearers was to serve for signs and seasons, and to mark the days and years.( verses 5,14).

Answer 9

In order for those verses to make sense you have to understand their purpose. While much of the Bible is an historical account it's main purpose isn't to set forth history like in a text book. It's purpose is to reveal God and his interactions with mankind so that we can understand who He is and who we are and turn to Jesus for our salvation.

It might be helpful for you to realize that when this passage is speaking about days it is only using that word as a measurement of time. As to where the original light came from before the creation of the sun and the stars we can only guess that it was the light of God shining into the beginning of creation. Like I said, this passage isn't designed to explain all of the scientific details that we would find if we were looking in a text book in a class room. It's designed to teach us that the universe came into existence by the will of the eternal God of Heaven and that we are a part of his creation.

Answer 10

It does if you step back a bit. Gen 1:1 is just the introduction, Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em. Gen 1:2 refers to God's presence in hyperspace. The earth was without form because it wasn't there yet. The waters refers to the aether that the universe eventually became embedded in. Gen 1:3 is the Big Bang.Only then did the universe, the sun, the earth, day, and night come to be.