ContradictionsReading order 420Bible context 2 min read
When did God divide light from darkness?
Genesis assigns the separation of light and darkness to the first day, then gives the fourth day's lights that same function.
- Textual conflict
- Weak contradiction
- The supplied passages do not establish incompatible claims. Different events, meanings, or conditions may account for the difference.
- Importance
- Foundational
- A central claim about origins, salvation, divine justice, or religious authority.
Lights created on day four can continue a division first made on day one, since the later passage does not claim the first separation.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
God divides light from darkness on the first day
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Genesis 1:4-5
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Genesis 1
Fourth day lights divide light from darkness
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.