Day Four
Some people think the Bible says that the Sun, Moon, and stars were all made on the fourth day. Let’s examine the way Moses uses the verbs and the way the description of the fourth day fits into the structure of the narrative.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so.
16 God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.
17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 And there was evening, and there was morning--the fourth day (Genesis 1:14‑19)
Verb Tenses and Sequences
The narrative for day four begins with a simple past verb, God said. However, the verb tense is an accommodation to our human understanding. God’s statement should be understood as one of His eternal decrees, not necessarily said at a specific time. Making the light bearers and setting them in the sky involved a three-day process. The narrative for day four is therefore a summary of the story of the Sun, Moon, and stars. Their story is not covered in the narrative of the first three days, which describes only the formation of the Earth.
The narrative for day four begins with a simple past verb, God said. However, the verb tense is an accommodation to our human understanding. God’s statement should be understood as one of His eternal decrees, not necessarily said at a specific time. Making the light bearers and setting them in the sky involved a three-day process. The narrative for day four is therefore a summary of the story of the Sun, Moon, and stars. Their story is not covered in the narrative of the first three days, which describes only the formation of the Earth.
Creating, Forming, and Making
God created (Hebrew בָּרָא bara´) the darkness at the first moment, in Genesis 1:1. Then He formed (יָצַר yatsar) the light from the darkness, as a potter forms a vessel from clay. He did the same thing with the Earth. First, He created it, but He created it without form and empty. Later He formed the Earth. Elsewhere the Hebrew Scriptures just say that God made (עָשָׂה `asah) everything (Genesis 2:3), the heavens and the Earth (Genesis 2:4), and the man and the woman (Genesis 5:1). God created Adam and Eve in the same way, but He formed their bodies using different sources of material for each. He formed the man’s body from dust, but He formed Eve from Adam’s rib. A statement in Isaiah 45:18 brings the three verbs together. God created, formed, and made the Earth.
The verb made comprehends the two-step process of creating and forming. If we understand the process that way, it clears up a puzzle that has troubled readers of Genesis chapter one for centuries. God created the Earth at the first instant, but then He followed a process lasting several days as He was forming it. God also created the heavens at the first instant. The Sun, Moon, and stars are part of the heavens. Were they, like the Earth, created in the first moment but unformed? If so, then God finished forming them at some point during the first three days. The fourth day was the first day the Sun governed the day.
What were the sources of light for the first three days? When were the light bearers sufficiently well-formed that they could begin to shine? The Bible does not say when the Sun began to shine or when the stars began to shine. It says when they were created (the first instant of time) and when they were sufficiently formed that they could serve as signs (by the end of day three or the beginning of day four), but that does not fix the time when they began to shine.
God created (Hebrew בָּרָא bara´) the darkness at the first moment, in Genesis 1:1. Then He formed (יָצַר yatsar) the light from the darkness, as a potter forms a vessel from clay. He did the same thing with the Earth. First, He created it, but He created it without form and empty. Later He formed the Earth. Elsewhere the Hebrew Scriptures just say that God made (עָשָׂה `asah) everything (Genesis 2:3), the heavens and the Earth (Genesis 2:4), and the man and the woman (Genesis 5:1). God created Adam and Eve in the same way, but He formed their bodies using different sources of material for each. He formed the man’s body from dust, but He formed Eve from Adam’s rib. A statement in Isaiah 45:18 brings the three verbs together. God created, formed, and made the Earth.
The verb made comprehends the two-step process of creating and forming. If we understand the process that way, it clears up a puzzle that has troubled readers of Genesis chapter one for centuries. God created the Earth at the first instant, but then He followed a process lasting several days as He was forming it. God also created the heavens at the first instant. The Sun, Moon, and stars are part of the heavens. Were they, like the Earth, created in the first moment but unformed? If so, then God finished forming them at some point during the first three days. The fourth day was the first day the Sun governed the day.
What were the sources of light for the first three days? When were the light bearers sufficiently well-formed that they could begin to shine? The Bible does not say when the Sun began to shine or when the stars began to shine. It says when they were created (the first instant of time) and when they were sufficiently formed that they could serve as signs (by the end of day three or the beginning of day four), but that does not fix the time when they began to shine.
