Genesis 1:1–3 (Creation of Light)
Torah / Genesis · Primordial fiat separating light from the chaotic void
- First attested
- 6th century BCEDead Sea Scrolls (4QGen-b); Masoretic Text of Genesis.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.”
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Before form can take shape, the light of conscious awareness must awaken.
Genesis 1:1–3 (Tanakh); Sefer ha-Zohar I, Bereshit.
The primordial divine fiat calling light into existence across the formless void.
Genesis 1:1–3 opens the Hebrew Bible with the creation of the cosmos out of unformed chaos (tohu va-vohu) and darkness over the face of the deep (tehom). With the divine declaration Yehi Or ("Let there be light"), light bursts forth before the creation of the sun or stars. In Kabbalistic cosmology (Sefer ha-Zohar and Lurianic Kabbalah), this primordial light is the Or Ganuz (hidden divine illumination) that sustains the spiritual foundations of reality.
Light
Awakening clarity, creative manifestation, and emerging from mental chaos into order.
Shadow
Prideful imposition of rigid order, blinding brilliance, and intellectual arrogance.
