Genesis 1 (KJV) - Bible Truth Library

• The sun and the moon do not shine at one and the same time. The sun shines by day. The moon by night. That is just the present relation between Christ and His Church. Our Lord, in His earthly life, was the light of men, but wicked men led by religious rulers crucified Him. In His absence the Church is to shine for Him in this world. (“And God Made Two Great Lights: Genesis 1:16-18” by A.J. Pollock)

• The illustration of Sun and Moon supports the view we put forward. The only light the earth gets at night is that which comes from the moon, but the moon has no light of her own; she only sheds forth reflected light. There is strictly no such thing as moonshine. What we call moonshine is in reality reflected sunshine. So the Church has no light, but what she has from Christ. It is an evil thing when the presumption of ecclesiasticism claims that the Church teaches, and puts the authority of the Church equal to, or above, that of the Scriptures. (“And God Made Two Great Lights: Genesis 1:16-18” by A.J. Pollock)

• It is assuredly not the creation of the sun, etc. This the inspired historian does not say, but only that God now constituted the heavenly luminaries, after the plants and before the animals for the Adamic earth. Light had shone otherwise since the first day of the great week. Now He set the light-bearers of the heavens to do their assigned work, but it is for the earth, and indeed for man. Their creation was implied in ver. 1; for God did not create either empty; and what would heaven be without its host? And we saw that verse 2 implies that the earth even had not been so, though so it became with other marks of disorder. What had hindered the functions of sun and moon was now rectified. Light independently had been proved to be under God's control. On the fourth day He gave the luminaries of heaven their unhindered relation to divide the day from the night. (“Genesis 1:14-19” by W. Kelly)

• Then we are told that “God made”, not created, “the two great lights.” The language is never varied without purpose. Rosenmüller the younger was an admirable Hebraist, and certainly free enough in his handling of scripture; yet he has no hesitation in his discussion of this question formally, but insists that the genuine force of the construction is not “fiant luminaria” (i.e. let lights be made), but “inserviant in expanso coelorum” (i.e. serve in the expanse of the heavens). He compares the sing. with the plur. of the Hebrew verb for being, and deduces the inference that the language can only express the determination of the luminaries to some fixed uses for the world, and not to their production. Further, it is solely relation to man on earth that demonstrates the strict phraseological propriety of “the two great lights”. He who created all and inspired Moses knew better than Newton or Laplace the sizes of every orb of heaven; but for man's and for Israel's help on earth, to say nothing of every subject creature, what were all the rest for light-giving by day and night compared to the sun and moon? (“Genesis 1:14-19” by W. Kelly)

• {v.16-18} The stars only come in parenthetically. God made them too, if blind man deified them. But God gave sun and moon to rule over the day and over the night. They were His creatures and gifts for man's use, dividing between the light and the darkness. (“Genesis 1:14-19” by W. Kelly)

J. N. Darby Translation

And God made the two great lightsd, the great lightd to rule the day, and the small lightd to rule the night,—and the stars.

JND Translation Notes

Lit. "light-bearers."

W. Kelly Translation

And God made the two great lights, the greater light for ruling the day, and the lesser light for ruling the night (the stars also).