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Genesis calls the sun and moon ‘two great lights’ and describes one as greater and one lesser. 1 Enoch explains this difference by making both equal in size while giving the sun seven times the moon’s brightness.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 1:16
Hebrew Bible
15 and let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” It was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also. 17 God placed the lights in the expanse of the sky to shine on the earth,
1 Enoch 78:3
Pseudepigrapha
2 The moon has four names: the first is Asônjâ, the second Eblâ, the third Benâsê, and the fourth Erâe. 3 These are the two great luminaries, whose circumference is similar to that of the heaven, and the size of both is alike. 4 The sun contains seven portions of light which exceed those of the moon, distributed in definite measures until the seventh portion of the sun's light is depleted.
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Notes and References
... The author of the Astronomical Book confronted the same problem that the rabbinic scholars faced much later as they read Genesis 1:16. In other words, the problem is very old in the history of exegesis. The solution he adopted, however, was different. In his system, once created, the luminaries did not change from the situation commanded for them by their maker. Hence there was no room for reducing the size of the moon as a punishment. As we saw above, in 1 Enoch 78:3-4, the problematic phrase in Genesis 1:16, “the two great lights,” is brought into direct contact with the theme of Isaiah 30:26—the sun’s light is seven times brighter than that of the moon. Though the two luminaries are equal in size (“the two great lights”), they differ in brightness. In this way the writer of Genesis 1:16 was justified in calling one the greater and the other the lesser light in the very next phrase after calling both great. ...
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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