As we continue to study Genesis, we now turn to the ‘first day’ of the account. This is found in Genesis 1.3-5. Verse 3 has one of the best known sentences that it quoted not just within Christian circles, but also within the cultures at large. “Let there be light” is a sentence that we encounter in sitcoms and movies. In this post we will look at what the ‘first day’ holds for us and try to understand what it means.

Hebrew text:

3 וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר׃

4 וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶת־הָא֖וֹר כִּי־ט֑וֹב וַיַּבְדֵּ֣ל אֱלֹהִ֔ים בֵּ֥ין הָא֖וֹר וּבֵ֥ין הַחֹֽשֶׁךְ׃

5 וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים׀ לָאוֹר֙ י֔וֹם וְלַחֹ֖שֶׁךְ קָ֣רָא לָ֑יְלָה וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר י֥וֹם אֶחָֽד

 

Transliteration:
3 way·yō·mer ’ĕ·lō·hîm yə·hî ’ō·wr; way·hî- ’ō·wr.
4 way·yar ’ĕ·lō·hîm ’eṯ- hā·’ō·wr kî- ṭō·wḇ; way·yaḇ·dêl ’ĕ·lō·hîm, bên hā·’ō·wr ū·ḇên ha·ḥō·šeḵ.
5 way·yiq·rā ’ĕ·lō·hîm lā·’ō·wr yō·wm, wə·la·ḥō·šeḵ qā·rā lā·yə·lāh; way·hî- ‘e·reḇ way·hî- ḇō·qer yō·wm ’e·ḥāḏ. p̄

NIV:
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Study:
In his book The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, John Walton observes an off feature about the text in v. 5. Why does God not call the light, light? Why does God call it day? ‘Light’ is a natural phenomenon while ‘day’ is a duration of time and this mixing of the two categories should be disconcerting.

But the objection could be made, “Why did the text not say, ‘And God said, “Let there be a period of light.”’?” And this is where it is important to pay attention to the genre of the text. As mentioned earlier, it is imperative that the reader recognizes the genre of a text and interpret it accordingly.

We are not dealing with prose here, but poetry. A classic example from the bible is Psalm 23.1. When David says, “Yahweh is my shepherd” do we imagine that Yahweh is actually a sheepherder? And that David is, therefore, really a sheep? That would be ridiculous! We know that David is using a metaphor to state that Yahweh provides for him and protects him. He could very well have sung, “Yahweh is my provider and protector” and he is quite capable of doing that in other Psalms. But here he chooses one word – shepherd – to signify a whole complex of ideas – provision and protection, at the very least.

Or consider Mary Howitt’s poem The Spider and the Fly, which begins with “‘Will you walk into my parlour?’ said the spider to the fly.” The spider obviously is referring to his web. Why then does he not call it a ‘web’? As the poem goes on, the spider does call his web a ‘web’. However, the whole idea of the poem – that of not being taken in by flattery – is underscored by the use of the word ‘parlour’ which (mis)identifies the web as something comfortable and attractive.

In much the same way, the author of Genesis could have written, “And God said, ‘Let there be a period of light’ and there was a period of light.” But he chooses not to do so. I think the author is also cleverer that most of us and is employing an extended paraprosdokian¹ that spans multiple sentences rather than just one. But he does this not just for the sake of dramatic effect. Dramatic effect is certainly there since you would expect light to be called ‘light’. But the author is also doing this as a polemic device.

The account of Genesis 1 probably took its final form during the Babylonian exile.² At this time the Israelites were exposed to the Mesopotamian creation myths, in particular the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish. In this creation story, the Babylonian patron deity, Marduk, originally a god of thunderstorms and associated also with the sun, defeats the tyrannical Tiamat after waging war against her. I will deal with the Enuma Elish later.

But for now, suffice it to say that Genesis 1.3-5 shocks us into recognizing not just that God calls the light ‘day’ but also that this day exists without the sun yet being called into existence. The text clearly intends to subordinate the role of the sun and this polemic angle of the text should not be ignored.

What the first day sets in motion is the alternating periods of daytime and nighttime, the diurnal cycle, and of course the creation of time itself, without which life on Earth could not exist. The life sustaining character of nature in general and of this Earth in particular is, as we will see, one of the primary foci of the first account of origins.

Prayer:
Our gracious, loving God. We believe that you inspired the author of Genesis to not just write about you and your ways in the abstract, but in response to the errors surrounding him. Enable us to understand this crucial fact that scripture is written to tell us about you, our God, and about your relationship to your creation, ourselves included. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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^{1. Some examples of paraprosdokian are “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.” (Groucho Marx); “A modest man, who has much to be modest about.” (Winston Churchill); and “She looks as though she’s been poured into her clothes, and forgot to say when.” (P. G. Wodehouse). All from LaPointe, Leonard. Figaro and Paraprosdokian in Journal of Medical Speech – Language Pathology, Sept, 2009↩}

^{2. See, for example, Burke, Jonathan. Dating Genesis 1-11. (Accessed 29 December 2018). The article is a balanced and detailed study of various aspects of the text of Genesis 1-11 in comparison with the rest of the Old Testament. Against Introduction to Genesis from the NIV Study Bible. (Accessed on 29 December 2018), which reaches a mid-second millennium BC date rather prematurely and When Was Genesis Written?. (Accessed on 29 December 2018), which is such a poorly written article stub that I really wish they’d remove the bottom links about following Jesus. Jesus should not be associated with such shoddy scholarship!↩}