(02-19-2020, 07:48 PM)RabbiO Wrote: Perhaps the pastor is familiar with this midrash from בראשית רבה -
"Rabbi Judah son of Rabbi Simon said: “Let there be evening” is not written here (talking about the Torah), but “And there was evening” ; hence we know that a time-order existed before this (talking about our current universe). ...
My own personal understanding of this (but presumably not original to me) is that the poetic image in the mind of the author(s) of Genesis 1 might have been that of dawn. God created light and then God separated light from darkness. Is that not how every day begins? Why not also the first day? First with a little bit of light on the horizon, and then the light becomes greater and greater until finally the darkness is completely dispelled and relegated to a separate time of day. The day begins in darkness, as did all of creation (חֹשֶׁךְ). This is not creation out of nothing, but creation out of chaos and darkness. God did not need to create the evening, to say, "Let there be Evening." It was already there before he first created light and then separated it from the primordial darkness.