Why did God "divide the light from the darkness"? Gen 1:4

Question

Because prior to the introduction of light, "darkness was upon the face of the deep," one would assume that darkness was created before light.

I assume it was created because nothing supersedes God, Who created the world from nothing, whereas darkness is most certainly NOT nothing. In order for there to be darkness as we know it, space absolutely has to exist, and it would be wrong to assume that darkness is a "natural" characteristic of space, since nothing is "natural" unless and until God says it is.

Physical darkness is the absence of the electromagnetic wave spectrum that the human eye (and any machinery we can conceivably invent) can detect.

Spiritual darkness is the inability of one's heart and/or soul to detect spiritual light. So far so good.

However, separating one from the other means - or does it? - that the two (light and darkness) overlapped, or were somehow merged together, before God divided them.

(Note also that He does not TELL them to go their separate ways; He divides them Himself, directly. Manually, so to speak).

What did the Universe in which light and darkness were mixed together look like? Why did God find it necessary (or did He?) to separate one from the other?

Gen 1:4 - And God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.

Answer 1

1 John 1:5-7ESV This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

I have been taught that you can not add darkness but only light. You can take light away and darkness is the result. Darkness is the absence of light. Matthew 8:12 For God to have created darkness would mean that God created a place separated from himself. In the end of the Bible we see a return to what once was.

Revelation 21:22-27 ESV And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Similar to this is, God is good. Mark 10:18 When one asks the question “Where does evil come from?”. One inversely is asking “Where does good come from?”.

Why did God “divide the light from the darkness”? -It is to bring glory to himself.-

Proverbs 25:2 ESV It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.

Jeremiah 13:16 ESV Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for light he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness.

2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Answer 2

Existential consequences: It is about the conception of the 'day' for work and the 'night' for sleep which in turn determines optimal design of the solar system including the Earth's rotation and diameter.

Answer 3

1. In the beginning God created the heavens (plural) and the earth.

2. The earth was inglorious (bohu) and markedly so (tohu).

3. Darkness was upon the face of the deep.

4. The Spirit of God hovered ('fluttered') upon the face of the waters.

After creation there was a marked ingloriousness to earth and there was a depth (in creation itself) which, due to darkness on its face, was obscure as to what it contained.

The Spirit of God did not rest in this condition nor alight upon this condition but was active, close to it, separate from it, in activity regarding it.

A condition ... and a concern.

Later, the reason was revealed - the presence of a spirit which was serpentine, adversarial, deceitful, cruel, murderous and utterly self-centred.

The problem - the dark depth, the condition, and the adverse presence - was in the heavens.

Not the visible heavens, for as yet there were none, stars yet unformed.

The problem was in the second heavens (not the third where God dwells and his his throne but) that which is of creation but is not visible substance : powers, energies, principalities, authorities in structured layers and in conjunctions of operation which composite structure is necessary for space and energy and matter to exist.

Into this scenario, came light.

And that Light was not of the darkness. It was a further creation. Creation has a certain liability to it, because of what intelligent creatures will do (they will always do) and the consequences of that wilful action.

So God divided the Light (a new creation) from that of the already created.

It is distinct, it is separate and it has purpose.

All of this is spiritual.

It is a New Creation.

Answer 4

There is no mention of God creating darkness because darkness is the mere absence of light. It was necessary for God to define visible light from the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum before creating the sun, earth's atmosphere, plant, and animals because visible light is a integral part of how they function. The basis for the question is what does בדל mean. The use of this verb in the Old Testament is Hiphil thus the idea of causing.

Figure 1. Senses of בדל in the Old Testament.

First, look at this from God's perspective:

גַּם־חֹשֶׁךְ֮ לֹֽא־יַחְשִׁ֪יךְ מִ֫מֶּ֥ךָ וְ֭לַיְלָה כַּיֹּ֣ום יָאִ֑יר ‬כַּ֝חֲשֵׁיכָ֗ה כָּאֹורָֽה‬׃ (Psalm 139:12, BHS)

   even the darkness is not dark to you; 
  the night is bright as the day, 
  for darkness is as light with you.
                (Psalm 139:12, ESV)

Light is a narrow part of the electromagnetic spectrum. From God's standpoint of vision there is nothing to initially distinguish it from other electromagnetic waves. As a first step in creation, especially related to the Earth and its solar system, God defined the narrow spectrum called light. Our sun, the atmosphere, plants, and the eyes of animals are all created with the significance of this narrow electromagnetic spectrum God called light. The sense you can say God created darkness is, unlike God, who can always see, people can only see when light is present. Without light is dark for people.

Answer 5

Understanding the creation account in Genesis involves the three key concepts listed in Gen 1:2

Now the earth was (1) formless/chaotic and (2) void/empty, and (3) darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Note the three significant words here:

1. תֹּהוּ (tohu) = formlessness, chaotic
2. בֹּהוּ (bohu) = emptiness
3. חשֶׁךְ (choshek) = darkness

See also Jer 4:23. The the succeeding account of creation of our world, God sets about giving it form/shape, filling it and banishing darkness.

Thus, God's first act is separate light from darkness by providing light.

[Note: I do not thing God actually created light at this moment because light has always been integral to God's existence as per 1 John 1:5.]

The six days of creation naturally fall into two sets of three:

Days 1-3 - Separation/forming

• day 1: God separates light from darkness and thus creates day/night
• day 2: God separates waters above from the waters below and thus creates the "heavens"
• day 3: God separates dry land ("earth") from seas and creates vegetation

Days 4-6 - Population/filling

• day 4: God places lights in the day and lights in the night
• day 5: God places birds in the heavens and creatures in the sea
• day 6: God places animals on the land and creates humans

Answer 6

We must be careful to use the understanding that the physical and spiritual are connected - in type, in principle etc.

We know where sp. darkness came from. Before this, we can only assume that evil was not present in all creation. When Lucifer allowed pride to become sin, he effectively created sp. darkness - he initiated evil and this affected everything that was - drawing a third of the angels into his den of darkness, lies, deceit and hate.

When God created, or rather, re-created earth in the Gen account, He allowed, no effectively placed evil within it's confines. This was not necessary, but a recognition of the cosmos filling evil that worked against His principles of love.

He used this darkness to bring about a better creation. He separated or divided, spiritually speaking, the areas that He would maintain, and those that evil would reign for a time. This applied to some humans and other areas of creation that would remain His and for His purposes.

In Gen, light could shine upon the earth, but it was restricted from doing so. Darkness of itself is not evil - it is a natural phenomenon of a body passing in front of a light source.

The sp. analogy of separation applied to physical creation and in a grander sense all of creation which at it's very core is of a spiritual nature.

What did the Universe in which light and darkness were mixed together look like?

This is where the analogy of phy. to sp. breaks down.

With God, they are not mixed together - they (temporarily) co-exist in the same place. God never mixes with evil, there is no shade or grey areas with God. This is why it is so important to understand the differing will that Jesus had apart from God. In him, for a time, we had grey areas where darkness was able to influence the holy son of God. But that is not part of this Q.

Answer 7

It seems a very crucial point is missing in the entire discussion: in all Gen 1 cases the verb ‘badal’ (to separate) is a Hifil form (not Qal) which is the causative form. That is something that causes the separation. If we read Gen 1:14 carefully, we see it is a source of light (i.e. maor מָאוֹר e.g. Sun) that is causing the separation. Besides, the same source of light causes the alternation of the seasons too.

Now that we know how the solar system works, we can understand that the rotation and the revolution of the earth are the causes of the alternation of day and night and the alternation of seasons respectively.

Gen 1:14 (NASB)

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,

Answer 8

We don't know because the Bible doesn't tell us. We can speculate, but I'm not sure it's helpful to do so. I'd chalk this up to one of the many mysteries of Scripture.

Answer 9

Wow! So, so interesting. New here. Didn't know this discussion existed.

One thing I have learned from the bible is that God authored His word for everybody. A simple message that is easy to understand. Gen 1:1, he created the heavens and the Earth. At this point the sun. moon stars and hence light existed.

The Earth was covered in a thick dense vapor (as science tells us, like Venus I can imagine). No light reached the watery surface of the Earth.

God began to thin out the vapors allowing light to reach the surface dependent on the rotation of the Earth.

This process continued until He separated the waters above from the waters below leaving an expanse in between. Since we have just experienced massive flooding where I live, I can vouch for the waters above.

In the fourth period of preparing the Earth for habitation, the separation was sufficient to see the luminaries from the surface of the Earth.

This chapter is written from the perspective of somebody on the surface of the Earth because prior to a relatively few years ago, any other perspective would have been inconceivable.

One last comment: The original poster referred to darkness as a thing. I'm not so sure. Something which, to me, is difficult to conceive is the fact that prior to the creation of the physical universe, there was nothing. What we think of as space is in fact nothing. If you remove everything (except you) from the universe, there is nothing, no direction, no velocity, no light and no end point. There are no physical rules, just emptiness. All that changed some 14 billion years ago when God created the universe. No wonder in Job 26:7, the Earth is described as hanging on nothing.