{"id":14856,"date":"2022-11-14T12:37:04","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T17:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/?p=14856"},"modified":"2022-11-14T12:37:21","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T17:37:21","slug":"genesis-114-does-genesis-teach-that-the-sun-and-moon-were-created-after-the-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/genesis-114-does-genesis-teach-that-the-sun-and-moon-were-created-after-the-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Genesis 1:14 – Does Genesis teach that the sun and moon were created after the Earth?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Problem:<\/strong> Critics point out that the sun, moon, and stars were supposedly created after God created the Planet Earth. However, this clearly contradicts modern science, which teaches that it was the other way around.
\n
\nSolution:<\/strong> The text doesn\u2019t say that the sun, moon, and stars were created (Hebrew bara) on the fourth day. Sailhammer writes,<\/p>\n

In v.14 God does not say, \u201cLet there be lights \u2026 to separate,\u201d as if there were no lights before this command and afterward the lights were created. Rather the Hebrew text reads, \u201cAnd God said, \u201cLet the lights in the expanse of the sky separate.\u2019\u00a0\u201d In other words, unlike the syntax of v.6, in v.14 God\u2019s command assumes that the lights were already in the expanse and that in response to his command they were given a purpose, \u201cto separate the day from the night\u201d and \u201cto mark seasons and days and years.\u201d If the difference between the syntax of v.6 (the use of h\u0101y\u0101h alone) and v.14 (h\u0101y\u0101h + l infinitive; cf. GKC, 114h) is significant, then it suggests that the author did not understand his account of the fourth day as an account of the creation of the lights; but, on the contrary, the narrative assumes that the heavenly lights have been created already \u201cin the beginning.\u201d[1]
\nRoss notes, \u201cVerse 16 does not specify when in the past the sun, moon, and stars were made.\u201d[2] These could have been made billions of years before this statement. Robert Newman notes that the Hebrew verb tense for \u201cmade\u201d is the pluperfect, which can be translated \u201chad made.\u201d This same verb tense is used when Laban enters Rachel\u2019s tent in Genesis 31:34 to demonstrate that she \u201chad taken\u201d the idols.[3] Instead, the text says that they were created for the purpose of detecting \u201cseasons and for days and for years\u201d (Gen. 1:14b). It could have been that the sun, moon, and stars could not be seen through the Earth\u2019s early atmosphere until this point in history. Since the perspective of the story is told from the Spirit of God hovering over the surface of the water (Gen. 1:2), this could be our vantage point from which the story was being told.[4] C. John Collins notes that the expression, \u201cLet there be\u2026\u201d is used in the rest of the Bible to show function\u2014not creation (1 Sam. 20:13; Ps. 33:22 with 90:17. He writes, \u201c\u2018He made\u2019 is not the same as \u2018he created.\u2019\u201d[5]<\/p>\n

[1] Sailhamer, J. H. (1990). Genesis. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor\u2019s Bible Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers (Vol. 2, p. 34). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.<\/p>\n

[2] Ross, Hugh. The Genesis Question: Scientific Advances and the Accuracy of Genesis. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1998. 44.<\/p>\n

[3] See Robert Newman in Youngblood, Ronald F. The Genesis Debate: Persistent Questions about Creation and the Flood. Nashville: T. Nelson, 1986. 45-46.<\/p>\n

[4] Archer writes, \u201cBut inasmuch as the creation of light on the first \u201cday\u201d indicates the priority of the sun even in the Mosaic account, we are to understand on exegetical grounds that the emphasis on the fourth day was not the original creation of the heavenly bodies as such, but rather their becoming available for the purpose of regulating time and the cycles of the rotation and revolution of earth and moon\u2026 The specific verb for \u201ccreate ex nihilo\u201d (b\u0101r\u0101\u02d2) is not used in Gen. 1:16, but rather the more general term, make (\u02d3\u0101s\u00e2). The fair inference is that a dense vapor encompassing the earth had hitherto precluded this possibility, even though sufficient diffused light may have previously penetrated to support the growth of plant life.\u201d Archer, Gleason L. A Survey of Old Testament Introduction. Third Edition. Chicago, IL: Moody, 1998. 202.<\/p>\n

[5] Collins, C. John.\u00a0Science & Faith: Friends or Foes?\u00a0Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2003. 90.<\/p>\n

\n

“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: (Gen 1:14)’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Problem: Critics point out that the sun, moon, and stars were supposedly created after God created the Planet Earth. However, this clearly contradicts modern science, which teaches that it was the other way around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22,8,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-errors","category-bible-study","category-bible-teaching","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pathway2truth.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}