Lights

In the ancient near east, the sun and the moon were considered deities. This is a picture of the sun god that dates from the neo-Babylonian period, roughly the 9th century B.C. In front of the deity is his symbol, the sun disc, and the king is being led in before the god in order to worship him. In ancient near eastern creation stories, after an introductory description of the watery chaotic state, the first thing the main god would create is other gods, and it’s important to remember that in the ancient near east, the sun and the moon are deities. But what happens in Genesis? Right at the point where other creation stories tell about the creation of other deities, we’re told that God created two great lights, a greater light and a lesser light, and that he set them in the expanse of the sky. What we have to notice is that the sun and the moon are not named. Why? Because to name them would sound an awful lot like the big god is creating lesser gods, namely the sun and moon. Why? Because the words ‘sun’ and ‘moon’ are the names of other gods. Right away, we’re told that God didn’t need to create lesser gods to help him organize and govern the universe.

To us, maybe that doesn’t mean much, but to an ancient near eastern mind, this is radical.