Creation: Light

(It takes a complicated answer for a complex issue. This explains how God created light before He created the sun and moon.)

How can the Bible concept of their being light before the sun was created be reconciled?

That antinome has puzzled me as it has many. Therefore, I researched over thirty sources and reached the following conclusion.

On the first day of creation it is said, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light.’” Genesis 1:3

On the fourth day of creation it is noted, “Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament… Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night…’” Genesis 1:14 & 16

Is there a conflict in these passages? How could there be light before the sun and moon?

There is no conflict.

Genesis 1:3 translates the Hebrew word “owr,” anglicized as “light,” a word for luminescent energy. When we think of light we think of the optical light we see. However, there are many unseen forms of light. 

Spectrum indicates the rate at which light oscillates at a standard frequency per second. Various frequencies are known as Hertz, KHz, MHz, GHz, THz. Each is used for a different purpose.

The “frequency” of the electromagnetic wave determines the form of waves. Examples are, radio waves have a low frequency with the peaks being far apart. Microwaves are next followed by infrared light. Next is the visible spectrum. The human eye can only see light with 430-790 THz frequency, called the visible spectrum. Following in order dependent on their frequency are ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays.

Exahertz (EHz), the gamma ray portion, goes all the way to infinity. Though not visible to the human eye these are all forms of light. Visible light is also scored on this scale. Above the visible portion of light are Gamma Rays, Ultraviolet Rays, and X-Rays.

This poses the question, can light be transformed into matter? The answer has experimentally been proven to be yes. 

Visible light as well as all other forms of electromagnetic radiation like X-rays, radio waves, and microwaves are carried by photons. 

All electromagnetic waves are the reference in Genesis 1:3. Both visible and invisible forms are in reality “light.” 

Scripture notes, “For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and earth, visible and invisible….” The first was light which possesses both qualities. 

In 1934, two American physicists, Gregory Breit and John A. Wheeler, theorized that if one could make two protons collide, the collision would produce two positron-electron pairs— and thus convert light into matter. 

Science has now progressed to the point where two experiments, one by the Imperial College of London and one by Stanford’s linear collider, have proven light has been converted into matter. 

Therefore, it is logical that light was created first. From it He created all matter including the sun and moon.

Dr. George F. Smoot III, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, conducted an experiment for the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) that resulted in the measurement “of the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation.” He spoke of the finding as showing the first light of creation. Of it he said, “it was like looking at the face of God.” If it was not the radiance of God it was radiance from God.

God is the Luminary from which comes luminescence. 

Genesis 1:14 describes the subsequent creation of the sun and moon which became future sources of light.