Genesis says "grass" (3rd day) existed before the "sun" (4th day) - theories?

Just to give you a sense of place I will quote from the end of the second day to the end of the fourth:

Gen 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.
Gen 1:9 Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so.
Gen 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:11 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.
Gen 1:12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.
Gen 1:14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
Gen 1:15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.
Gen 1:16 Then 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.
Gen 1:17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,
Gen 1:18 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.
Gen 1:19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Now, clearly Abraham was speaking with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so what was he getting at? Grass can't survive without light and to me, it seems obvious that the light that was in the universe from the first day would not be enough. Did grass have a different form? Was Abraham saying "grass was there in principle"?

I have worked out that days in Genesis are days of a different magnitude, so it is not impossible that he meant "grass was there in principle", presumably waiting to grow into the grass we know today.

Theories?

I believe that the light that caused that spiritual grass to grow on that spiritual place was God’s Light. I do not see our sort of vegetation growing until our physical Earth was formed with our Sun and the rest of the Universe on “day” four. The “Big Bang”? Maybe! See my Genesis Enigma thread.

Grass can survive 24 hours without light and that is all that would have been required. Also there was light starting on day 1. We can't be sure if that light was light that would be usable by plants but it certainly is possible.

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Someone asked Will the heathen who have never heard the Gospel be saved? It is more a question with me whether we -- who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not -- can be saved. Charles Spurgeon

Gen 1:5 indicates that it was the sun that was the light that was brought to the earth on the first day, as it is the sun that divides day from night. God did this by removing the darkness that covered the face of the deep (earth). There is no indication that this 'darkness' was universal. The light from the existing 'luminaries' was then able to reach the earth.

owg

I don't mean to be a troublemaker, but what translation are you using? Neither the NKJV nor the KJV say anything about the sun in Gen 1:5.

My reading of the account (KJV) shows that:

The earth became a chaotic wasteland.

Some kind of darkness covered the face (surface) of the earth.

God's spirit moved (hovered) over the face (surface) that was darkened.

When God said "Let there be light" he was sweeping the darkness away to allow the light to fall upon the earth. It was like a king calling for music and dance. He didn't create them at that time, but called them into his presence at that time, perhaps from behind a 'curtain'.

God brought light to the earth on day one.

Because it was only the earth and not the heavens that are being addressed it is clear to me that the sun, moon, and stars were probably still in their places but could not shine on the earth because of the 'darkness'. I don't believe this darkness was the absence of light in the whole universe but the same 'darkness' of the plagues on Egypt. (Or it may have been dust in earth's atmosphere from cataclismic volcanoe activity.)

In any case when the light was brought it caused the light/dark cycle of a complete 'day'. Only the presence of the sun does that.

An alternate reading of events on day four affirms the places and duties of the sun and moon as markers of days, months, and seasons, etc.

I think that the translation of the bible was affected by interpretation. The Hebrew language offers several meanings for each word. Those early scholars chose words that supported the traditional interpretation. Thus our interpretation, or understanding, is affected by their translation. It can be a vicious cycle of misunderstanding.

Considering the metaphorical aspect of the story: light represents truth. The truth is always there, like the sun, but is veiled from our eyes by darkness, which symbolizes ignorance, sin, absence of truth.

owg

Oldwiseguy. The fact that the Sun only appears on the fourth"day" is important because Jesus is the Light that was present on the first and all other creation periods. It is His Light that lit the Creation for three periods of time.

Light, the Sun, are physical metaphors for God and for Christ, to be sure. Darkness metaphorically means sin, absence of God, ingorance, (literally: obscurity), and ultimately the person of Satan. But I believe that these verses pertain to the physical renewal of the surface of the earth, and the metaphorical meanings as well.

I would guess that the 'light of Christ' would be omnipresent and illuminate the whole earth, so that there would be no 'night'. The fact that the light on day one caused the distinction between day and night indicates that it was the sun shining in full strength on one side of the earth only, which causes the opposite side of the earth to lay in darkness. So metaphorically speaking God was allowing the darkness to exist along with the light. The moon (Satan) would continue to rule the 'night'.

owg

OWG. I think that you missunderstood me. I believe that the first three periods of creation involved the creation of the Heavens and matter. This matter was used with the spiritual to create a prison for Satan and his fallen angels. I believe Eden was a "place" protected by God's Light - Jesus in his pre human form from the darkness round it. Only the place with light God called good. I believe that though God created matter on the first "day", he did not use it to create our Universe until the forth period of creation when the Sun moon and stars were formed - Big Bang.

Interesting. I tend to believe that God created the material universe as an "estate" and "habitation" (Jude) for Lucifer and the angels long ago. The later casting down of Lucifer may have begun the destruction of earth's surface. I see Genesis One as not only the renewal of the earth's surface but a metaphor for the greater "restitution of all things": the restoration of God's damaged spiritual kingdom.

owg