September 1, 2021
Does Day Follow Night, or Night Follow Day?
God’s first creative proclamation was “Let there be light,” so it might seem that the day came first. But then why does the Bible say that "it was evening and it was morning?"
The Jewish calendar tells us that this Rosh Hashanah we’ll be celebrating our world’s 5,782nd birthday. What it doesn’t say, though, is precisely at what hour our world was born. Will its exact anniversary be this coming Monday night or this coming Tuesday morning?
The Bible is not very clear about this. Here are the opening verses of Genesis:
In the beginning God created heaven (shamayim) and earth (arets). And the earth was without form and void; and darkness (ḥoshekh) was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (mayim). And God said, let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day (yom), and the darkness he called night (laylah). And it was evening (erev), and it was morning (boker), one day (yom eḥad).