Troublesome Topic: Evening and Morning

Genesis 1:5

Translation

And ELOHIM divided the interval between

light and between darkness.

And ELOHIM called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. (See comment below.)

Paraphrase

And THE CREATOR AND OWNER OF ALL THINGS made a clear distinction between light

and darkness. And THE CREATOR AND OWNER OF ALL THINGS called the time

for light day, and the time for darkness He called night.

And there was a transition from light to darkness, then later there was a transition from darkness to light; as the time came to repeat the transition from light to darkness the cycle was complete, forming the first day. (See comment below.)

Evening and Morning Were Transitions from Daylight to Darkness and back again.

The text assumes the reader realizes that time has already been set by God and it has begun to do what time does. The passing of time is already happening. With the creation of light, the passage of time is marked and categorized by well-defined and easily recognizable periods of time which God called night and day.

It was not nighttime and daytime that comprised the first day, but rather evening and morning, referring to the transition times between light and darkness. When you notice that the two transitions have been completed (a transition from light to darkness, and then from darkness to light) and you are ready to start the cycle of transitions again, that means a full day has passed.

From this line of thinking we can deduce that the measuring of day one and day two, etc., and the timing of evening and morning, were communicated from the perspective of that one place on earth called Eden. The transition to evening was the first event in time to take place after the creation and separation of light. Is it any wonder then, that the Israelites considered evening-time the beginning of their day? In doing so they were simply mimicking what God had done at the beginning of creation.

The next lesson is: The Heavens Are between Two Layers of Water

Footnotes

1: He divided

A pattern will emerge in which God created something, and then He divided it into its different realms or categories. The issue of realms will remain an important theme throughout the rest of Scripture. The words “He divided the interval between” were simply their way of saying that He created a division between things. This form of saying it will be repeated several times.