I recently came across a YOUTUBE video titled “Christianity is BS and the Bible is a f**ked up book“.
The whole theme of the video was to demonstrate the absurdity of the Bible by pointing out supposed contradictions.
The creator of this video, a young attractive female actually, starts off with the following example in a super sarcastic voice:
“In the very beginning in Genesis, on the first day, God created day and night, but waited until the fourth day to create the sun, moon, and stars. That seems a little strange. Hmmm??? (super thick sarcasm here)”
So what gives here? Does this anti-Bible girl have a point?
How is it that God lit up the Earth on the first day but didn’t create the Sun until the fourth day?
Have we found our first Bible contradiction?
My answer: If you knew the original Hebrew, you wouldn’t have that problem.
In verses 3 and 4, the Hebrew word for “light” is OWR.
This word does NOT mean an object that emits light…..like the sun or the moon or the stars, or a lamp.
Rather it means illumination, enlightenment.
When the Bible says God is light it says Elohim is OWR.
This word is closely associated with life and joy and good.
Now in verse 14 (the fourth day) it talks about there being lights in the sky to divide day and night, and in verse 16 God says He created the larger light (the sun) to rule the day and the smaller light (the moon) to rule the night.
There is an entirely different word used for “light” here than what is used in previous verses.
Here, the Hebrew word is MAOROT.
It’s the word from which we get the modern word “meteor”.
MAOR means an object that emits light (maorot is plural, lights).
Now let’s connect this to Yeshua’s words in the New Testament.
“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”-John 8:12
So obviously Jesus is not saying that He is a living light stand and that if He visits your house, you can shut off all the electricity.
He is saying that He is filled to the brim with the very radiant wisdom of God Himself.
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.-Revelations 21:23-25
So here we see the in the Book of Revelations that when god creates the new heavens and the earth, there will no longer be any need for maorot or light-emitting objects.
From that point on, we will bask in God’s spiritual light or OWR for all eternity.
Next time, we will take a look at the Hebrew word for “darkness”.
I need a good teachings so teach my church members as we also worship on Sabbath and we celebrate the 3 important festivals in the bible. so my real question is in this teaching about light, sun and moon the modern bibles translators did not arrange the bible well?
Am from Ghana
Thanks
Matthew
Hi Matthew!
Thank you for your comment!
The truth is there have been precious few Bible translators who have an in-depth understanding of Hebrew culture. They may understand the Hebrew language on a purely academic level but there are many subtle cultural nuances embedded in the meaning of words that can be overlooked or misunderstood.
My blog is a humble attempt to attempt to rectify this problem.
Thanks for reading and please share with others.
Rich
Your thoughts on the earth being flat and domed as the Bible says?
My thoughts on a flat earth? Well, I haven’t even been thinking about it. But to be honest, it sounds like a lot of baloney to me. I think the more important question is, if I find out today that the earth is flat, is it going to cause me to change the way I live my life significantly? I think not.
I have been pondering on this for some time. And that’s the first problem God lives outside of time something I cannot get my head around. I just have to accept this as truth. Secondly, GOD is spirit. The spirit can shine His light even when we think he cannot see us in our darkness. Third God is light. Brighter than the sun. And when the light was made heaven and earth were separated. There is no darkness in heaven He is still shining! And finally I believe God speaks as he wants us to speak. By faith. First he spoke light by faith then could see the light by faith and then saw the physical manifestation light on earth. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
Thanks for sharing Stuart.
I just today discovered your blog and have decided to start reading from the beginning so forgive me if it seems I’m dragging you back.
The topic here has been of particular interest to me for a long time. While I find your explanation of the first light as ‘enlightenment’ interesting, it does not account for God calling the light Day and the darkness night. It just doesn’t fit.
Moreover if this light created on the first day is the same as that referred to as the nature of God, as you explain, then why is God just creating it here’again’ when it is already in His nature and He had been in existence since before time?
Thanks in advance for clarifying this for me.
Hi Dotun, Thank you for your question. However, I’m not quite sure I understand what you’re getting at. God’s light called OWR in Hebrew has BOTH the physical characteristic of brightness and the spiritual characteristic of enlightenment. There is a DUAL NATURE to God’s light. I hope this clarifies it for you. Shalom.
I too have just discovered your blog, and also decided to read through from the beginning. This is probably going to sound like nit picking, but you referred to the last book in the New Testament as the Book of Revelations, (plural)
Thanks Dawn. Here’s a little snippet I picked up from Wikipedia: “The Book of Revelation, often called the Book of Revelations, Revelation to John, Apocalypse of John, The Revelation, or simply Revelation, the Revelation from Jesus Christ (from its opening words) or the Apocalypse, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore also the final book of the Christian Bible.” Thanks for reading! Be blessed and SHALOM!
Richoka now that Yahwe knows we are not jews who on earth was supposed to aid me in understanding the hidden hebrew dialect which if overlooked distorts the scriptures. For example by us gentiles calling the Tanakh the old testamnet while its actually the scripture clearly diminishes its relevance in our day to day study of Gods word. No wonder in our ignorance we call ourselves’ present’israel”unashamedly. Talk of kosher and how Yahhwe forbids us to take meat with blood. Rich how on earth are we supposed to understand how slaughtering is done considering we have no kosher butcheries in most gentile nations? i opted to leave red meat completely, no pizza any more. Am sure you feel my sentiments.
from kenya
I was uncomfortable with saying that our English word meteor was derived from a somewhat similar Hebrew word because I didnt think many English words came from Hebrew, but as I was looking it up, I xame upon this article about edenics…..
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/150768/examining-edenics
If people would slow down when they read Genesis and actually analyze what it’s saying the meaning will become much clearer. It says in the beginning elohim created the heavens and the earth. The beginning is not established other than we know all things visible and invisible was created by Yahushua. not only the earth but also the heavens were there on day one. The heavens include the sun and the moon. It also tells us water was on the face of the deep as well as darkness. So, water was already created. Consider your starting with the planet that is totally encased in darkness that no light is able to shine through. We can have light without actually seeing the sun. We know that on a cloudy day even though the sun isn’t shining we can distinguish the day from the night. The spirit of elohim/YHWH moved on the face of the deep to remove the darkness which by day 4 the sun and moon were actually visible.