

Sign up
Here's how it works:
  1. Anybody can ask a question
  2. Anybody can answer

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.

share|improve this question

migrated from Nov 29 '11 at 14:13


up vote 5 down vote accepted

IMO, this is the simplest explanation:


At this point everything is dark.


Now everything is light.



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

Edit in response to a question about the sun, moon and stars:

Twice a day, at dusk and at dawn, our planet is well lit without the sun being visible. I don't think it's a problem that the sun moon and stars are created later on day four, because light doesn't depend on the sun from the perspective of humans living at that time period in history.

enter image description here Image source, wikipedia

share|improve this answer
The only problem I have with this interpretation is the sun, moon, and stars were not created until v.14-18. Which begs the question, what light is being referred to here? – cegfault Mar 17 '15 at 7:35
@cegfault, I responded to your question in an edit to my answer. – Amichai Jul 17 '15 at 13:48
(a) if the sun doesn't exist, it's light won't reach the earth; and (b) saying they weren't directly visible from earth/man's perspective begs the very simple problem of earth's rotation around the sun. Are you suggesting it was in a perpetual state of not revolving around the sun yet? A perpetual dawn for 4 days? In other words, I still don't think this interpretation makes any sense. – cegfault Jul 18 '15 at 11:58
Adam Clarke makes the case in his commentary for Genesis 1:4 that God started the Earth's rotation at this point, thus why in verse 5 'Day' and 'Night' are named. So God creates light and starts the Earth's rotation, thus allowing the first (and each subsequent) evening/morning cycle to occur. (Note that 'rotation' is our 24-hour night/day period, and 'revolution' is our 365 day yearly journey around the Sun.) – Brian Weigand Dec 11 '15 at 1:42


Genesis 1:6-8 ESV


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


share|improve this answer

This was always a fascinating thing for me, the creation of light.

Gen 1:3 (KJV)


The best explanation for me of what light is, is what we now call the electromagnetic spectrum.

electromagnetic spectrum enter image description here

At this stage only the ability for the existence of light was made, there was no energy to to make darkness or light, everything was standstill and at zero kelvin.

Gen 1:3 (KJV)


Here we see for the first time interaction of God with creation, this "divided" I always see as an impartation of energy into creation. Here is where energy is given to protons to emit energy in the form of radiation to produce light.

enter image description here

Now for the first time there is energy and movement of electrons.

The day and night has to do with the sun, but the sun does not exist yet.

But we do have matter, thus this is where I think God made Black body radiation to produce visible light. Or at least established law that governs thermodynamics. Black body radiation

share|improve this answer
+1 for interesting speculation. I hadn't heard this one before. Honestly, it seems like a bit of a leap given the language of the first few verses. But that's not to say you're wrong, just that I see it as a bit of a stretch. But certainly lays an interesting thought process for creation of energy in that sense. – cegfault Mar 17 '15 at 7:39
@cegfault I'm glad you found it interesting :D – Barnstokkr Mar 17 '15 at 8:15

God is laying the foundation for the definition of a day. Notice the flow and progression of the text. Darkness (v.2) - Light had not been created, God creates light (v.3), God sees (of course He already knew) the light is good, God separates the light from darkness (He creates distinction), God names light and darkness (v.5) which defines a day, and then Moses recaps with “one day” which was defined by God.

share|improve this answer

I was actually trying to get my head around how could light and dark exist in one? they can't! So how does this work? Best answer I can come up with is that the 'big bang' theory is actually true. God says let there be light! Boom! As the universe expands, light is separated from darkness...literally. I was thinking how could the author of Genesis describe this if God showed it to him in a vision. First he sees God says let there be light. Then bright flash. God saw that the light was good. Then the universe expands and the light was separated from darkness as the cosmos came to existence. Of course, trying to explain the details of galaxies, stars etc to an ancient Jewish person would be impossible. So this is the best we got...

share|improve this answer
Personally I find trying to relate Genesis 1 to modern science to be a bit quixotic ( But if the Big Bang was the "let there be light" then what is all the other stuff that preexisted? IE: the abyss? Your post puts forth a hypothesis but does it match all the data? Not if it doesn't account for the preexistent abyss. – WoundedEgo Apr 21 at 2:02

Light and darkness were not one, but there had yet to be a physical separation between them. They were muddled together. We can find this interpretation in the Gospel of John.

Thankfully we have a "midrashic" interpretation of Genesis 1 in John 1.

4 In it was life and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light in the darkness shines and the light did not apprehend it.

The deeper questions of why there was light before the suns and the stars could better be explained by the circumstances in which this passage was written.

Many religions in antiquity worshiped the sun and the moon as deities. However the biblical writer is making a point by refusing to even name the sun and the moon. Likewise they are not the source of creation, as in Egyptian Atenism, rather they mere lights that preside over the day and the night.

I will not argue against the church's historical teaching of a seven day creation. This is understanding throughout the Bible. However instead of thinking about the ordering of events as "cause and effect" we should rather understand them as organized by "domains and rulers."

For example
Day 1: Light is made (Domain of Day and Night) = Day 4: Sun and Moon to rule them.
Day 2: Firmament is made (Domain of Waters) = Day 5: Fish and Birds
Day 3: Dry Ground appears (Domain of Land) = Day 6: Land Animals and Humans
Day 7: Sabbath

While initially it looks like the Seas are not made until Day 3. They are like darkness existing without being formally demarcated.

The Theological point of all this is of course, that MAN is the ruler of the earth, cosmological entities that were given high places of importance in other ancient religions are subverted.

share|improve this answer

Yeah - too much modern physics, not enough Hebrew Scriptures as they are.

Darkness is a THING.

Ex 10:21 says וְיָמֵשׁ חשֶׁךְ: darkness which may be felt. Aryeh Kaplan's translation has "God said to Moses, 'Reach out toward the sky with your hand, and there will be darkness in Egypt. The darkness will be palpable.'"

Next verse: "So Moses stretched forth his hand toward the heavens, and there was thick darkness over the entire land of Egypt for three days." חשֶׁךְ אֲפֵלָה .

Note Genesis 31:34 "and Laban felt through the whole tent" (i.e. searched it). Same word.

HELPS Word-studies says: 2217 zóphos – murky, appalling gloom, referring to darkness so dense and foreboding it is "felt"; gloomy darkness associated with the nether world (BAGD) bringing its indescribable despair (incredible gloom). I don't know Greek, but that seems to convey the right intent.

share|improve this answer
You've made this answer very hard to check by getting both your verse references wrong! I have suggested corrections as an Edit for you. So you've proven the darkness in Egypt was a thick darkness (ie like cloud), rather than just a blotting of the sun. That's not the same as proving this is always the meaning of 'darkness', because otherwise it would not need the adjective 'thick', right? Reading a similar Greek word's meaning back into an equivalent ancient Hebrew word is not a great strategy for understanding Hebrew - though it may occasionally help. – Steve Taylor May 12 at 9:29
The verse you've chosen from Exodus actually works against your argument, because if this is the normal way to understand darkness, why does it make a distinct point of saying "Extend your hand toward heaven so that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness so thick it can be felt." It would be a bit redundant to say it twice if the extra words weren't adding more meaning which wasn't implicit in 'darkness', right? – Steve Taylor May 12 at 9:35
I don't mean to argue, Mr. Taylor, but Ex 10:21 DOES refer to a "palpable darkness" and the Hebrew word is the same as in Gen 1:4. Ditto Ex 10:22, which I also quoted. And Gen 31:34 DOES use the word "felt", which is another usage of the word for "palpable". That's how Hebrew Scriptures work. Strong's 2217 is a direct reference to חֹשֶׁך־אֲפֵלָה, Exodus 10:22 - the blackness of (i. e. the densest) darkness. And all I said was "that seems to convey the right intent." – Pennywhistler May 12 at 15:28
I was not clear above. I fail to see how I got both my verse references wrong, when my verses say what I said they say. – Pennywhistler May 12 at 15:32
Fair enough - it could very well be that your conclusion is spot-on, it's just the argument you've presented for it in the Answer so far isn't particularly strong. I suggest Editing the answer further to include your other arguments you've begun to present in the comment. You may notice that my proposed Edit to your verse numbers was accepted, which is why they're now right :) – Steve Taylor May 12 at 16:08








share|improve this answer

protected by Community Apr 20 at 7:23


Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?
