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Genesis 1:4 NIV

God separated the light from the darkness.

I don't get this part.

Does it mean that light and darkness were one?

I know that there was darkness before God created the light.

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migrated from christianity.stackexchange.com Nov 29 '11 at 14:13


3 Answers 3

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IMO, this is the simplest explanation:


At this point everything is dark.

And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. (3)

Now everything is light.


It wasn't God's intention that everything should be dark or everything should be light. Instead light and darkness must both coexist and therefore the two must be separated and designated to its own domain. Verse five contains a more explicit description of that separation/designation:

And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night... (5)

KJV translation

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In sensus plenior darkness is Love as expressed in unity, grace, mercy, long-suffering, patience, etc. and Light is Holiness, as expressed in separation, law, justice, judgement, patience etc.

The Trinity existed in darkness/love before creation, but the Light/holiness was hidden in God, as expressed in the pun for Elohim (alo khoom - meaning 'not dark'). The Light, or the revelation of God as Holiness did not exist because there was nothing for him to be separate from. As soon as there was a creation, holiness could be expressed.

Light, as a metaphor for holiness, was pre-existent, but hidden in God himself.

God's revelation of himself is given in two paths Holiness and Love. When we understand them individually, He reconciles them on the cross. What was parted at creation is joined at the cross.

From a physics point of view: Experiments concerning "Shrodinger's cat" basically create light in opposite phases from nothing. Since the law of conservation of energy is not violated, quantum leaps of information can be created. Light and 'anti-light' are separated from nothingness.

This article shows one implementation using entangled particles. Another implementation in Australia accomplishes it within a light tube where the energy pattern put in one end exists the other simultaneously by splitting off an energy pattern traveling in reverse through the tube, originating at the exit face.

At the exit face, the two expressions of the pattern are created out of 'nothing' and express the input pattern in two ways. If people could actually understand what is going on it would be a great picture of splitting two expressions of God's revelation of himself out of nothing at His command.

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It's helpful to note that in Genesis 1, God not only separates light from darkness on the first day, but also waters from waters on the second day, and day from night on the fourth day.

Genesis 1:6-8 ESV


You're right that before there was light, all was darkness.

It seems that the key distinction is that the creation of light did not extinguish all darkness in all places, but rather that there were places for both light and darkness, just as day does not annihilate all night. Light would be limited in its reach.

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