Passage

Genesis 1.5

Book: Genesis · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. (Genesis 1:3-7, ASV)

WEB

3. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4. God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.

5. God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.

God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7. God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. (Genesis 1:3-7, WEB)

KJV

3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. ^{the light from: Heb. between the light and between the darkness}

5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. ^{And the evening: Heb. And the evening was, and the morning was}

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. ^{firmament: Heb. expansion} 7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. (Genesis 1:3-7, KJV)

YLT

3. and God saith, 'Let light be;' and light is. 4. And God seeth the light that [it is] good, and God separateth between the light and the darkness,

5. and God calleth to the light 'Day,' and to the darkness He hath called 'Night;' and there is an evening, and there is a morning, day one.

And God saith, 'Let an expanse be in the midst of the waters, and let it be separating between waters and waters.' 7. And God maketh the expanse, and it separateth between the waters which [are] under the expanse, and the waters which [are] above the expanse: and it is so. (Genesis 1:3-7, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the narrator of Genesis
Audience: Israel, as the book's first readers
Location: no location
Time period: primeval history, before the patriarchal narratives

Theological reading

God names the light Day and the darkness Night, and the day is counted: evening and morning, one day.

Naming in this chapter is an act of authority; God names the large divisions and later delegates naming to the man. The counting formula that closes each day begins here, and its two halves, evening then morning, follow the Hebrew reckoning in which the day begins at sunset.

The Hebrew is literally "day one" rather than "the first day," which some read as marking it as the unit by which the others are measured. The meaning of yom here is the central question in the interpretive spread set out at Bible Scientific Errors Objection Defeater; the readings range from ordinary solar days to periods to a literary framework, and the chapter's own placement of the sun on day four is the datum every reading has to handle.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H0259 - echad, echad, Strong's H0259
H0430 - elohim, elohim, Strong's H0430

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

People:

John Currid, via Genesis 1.1-11

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.