how could there have been light before the sun?
A literary answer, because Genesis One is literature, not documentation.*
The honest answer to this question is: We don’t know. But we can glean a few clues when we return to the ancient man or woman’s worldview and literature.
To start, the ancient Israelite wasn’t the only one to have a story (Genesis is a true story!) to account for how the world came to be. These accounts are called cosmogonies. Picture a variety of shepherds from varying Mesopotamian cultures sitting around a campfire all exchanging stories about how the world came to be. All the stories would have parts that are similar, and each story would have something unique to highlight the way their culture viewed nature, wisdom, and cosmic realities.
In Mesopotamian cosmogonies, it was normal that light existed before the sun.[i] They did not view the sun as the only provider of light, so light’s existence before the sun would not have caused them the confusion we have.
From a literature standpoint, there are two thoughts for why light existed before the sun in Genesis.
First, on day one, the mixing of light and dark was representative of chaos. Chaos is the combining of elements that should be separate (like the mixing of salt and fresh water in the Mesopotamian creation story, Enuma Elish). When God separates light and dark, He is demonstrating His ability to bring order to chaos. It was step one in providing structural organization to the cosmos. When the sun and moon appeared on day four, they are providing a purpose within the order God had begun to organize on day one.
A second reason that light came before the sun can be understood by examining ancient man’s understanding of time. John Walton, author and professor at Wheaton College and Graduate School, suggests that on day one, when God separated light and dark, He was creating time.[ii] This theory fits with the Egyptian’s concept of time. They incorporated an eternal timeline and a cyclical earth-bound sense of time (seen in years, seasons, and aging). [iii] [iv]
As the ancient man was concerned with purpose, the separation of light and dark on day one would establish the beginning of eternal time. To continue with this theory the installation of the sun and moon on day four would have marked the beginning of the seasonal cycles on earth. God directly states the purpose for the sun and moon is to be indicators for seasons when He says, “Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years”. (Genesis 1:14b NLT)
Either of the stated reasons can help make sense of the timeline in the biblical account of creation.
Here’s the most important thing though: The ancient man was more concerned with the purpose of creation, not the actual matter or process of creation. God was working within the way the ancient man understood both time and light and declaring Himself ruler over it all. This creation account was written to an ancient audience, and we will miss the glorious introduction God is making if we insist on sucking all the literary beauty out of it. The creation of nature tells us about the nature of the Creator.
The ancient Israelites would have been confused at our confusion. If we explained our frustration that it’s impossible for the light to appear before the sun, I imagine they would have shaken their heads at us. Because we always miss the point when we make Genesis chapter one a scientific document.
They may have said, “Don’t you realize that our God can separate things that are inseperable? That He can bring order out of cosmic chaos? That He can then make that very order permanent?”
And if we are wise, we will sit back and let that truth bring us to awe. We will worship and meditate on a God who can order the impossibly disordered. Because understanding WHO God is, is the point of Creation.
* to those concerned that I am positing that Creation is a fable, I am not. God created the universe, He may have even done it in seven literal days. My focus is understanding Creation as it was beautifully written, within the ancient genre of its time, as a cosmogeny. Genesis chapter one was never meant to be understood as a scientific document.
Footnotes:
[i] In Enuma Elish there is a reference to day and night before the creation of the sun.
Benjamin R Foster, “Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish),” in Context of Scripture. Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World, ed. William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger (Leiden: Brill, 2003): 391.
[ii] John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009): 55.
[iii] James P. Allen, “From Coffin Texts Spell 78,” in Context of Scripture. Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World, ed. William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger (Leiden: Brill, 2003): 11.
[iv] James P. Allen, “From Coffin Texts Spell 335 = Book of the Dead Spell 17,” in Context of Scripture. Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World, ed. William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger (Leiden: Brill, 2003): 15-17.
