Thank you for the interpretative question on Genesis 1:3, “In the third verse of the Big Book of Beginnings, it is said that There Was Light. If there is a problem in this verse, it has yet to be revealed. Can you offer any insight into whether or not there is a problem here, and as to what it might be?”
In order to interpret Genesis 1:3 one has to consider the context. Genesis 1:1–4 says this, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was [c]moving over the [d]surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day” (NIV).
Here are some thoughts for one’s consideration:
A. Genesis 1:1 is more than an introductory statement but a statement of God’s creative act of making the heavens and the earth. Although the Scripture are silent as to what is entailed in creating the heavens, it seems to me that God made the Universe with its stars but focused on earth. It does not seem reasonable that there was heaven and there was earth with nothing in between as no galaxies or stars.
B. Genesis 1:2 states that the earth was surrounded by a body of water encircling the earth. No light from the stars could penetrated the depths of the water. The text states that the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep. No natural light from the stars were able to penetrate to the surface of the crust of the earth.
C. Genesis 1:3 state that God commanded that the presence of light separating the darkness from the light. I am suggesting that the light from God is the shekinah glory of God penetrating the depths of the water to earth. This was the first creative reformatting of the earth from void and empty.
The Scripture describes God as being light. The brilliance or majestic glory of God reached earth and beyond. Cosmologists and physicists are able to detect the light of stars/galaxies to 14 billion years. They are now considering what was there before the “Big Bang.” Is it possible that they may detect the radiant glory of God? I would like to think that physicists and cosmologists would conclude that there was something/someone before the Big Bang came into existence.
It is my interpretation that the days in creation are not 24 hour time period but reflects the creative work of God which is called day 1. The sun and moon were created on day 4. Thus the day 1–3 must refer to a different time frame. I call the days as being the creative acts of God as described in stages called day.
SUMMARY: The light in Genesis 1:3 is not the physical wave lengths from the stars but to the shekinah glory of God which is the beginning of the creative act of God upon the earth.