In the first day Elohim created light, and it was day and night in the first day. Then in the fourth day he created the sun, the moon and the stars. How could it be ?. Of course, it did not actually happen, but what did the writer have in mind?. The Watchtower Society tries to avoid this unscientific ancient view of Genesis by telling us that the sun was indeed created before the first day. So the Society says in a footnote:
In the description of what happened on the first “day,” the Hebrew word used for light is ʼohr, light in a general sense; but concerning the fourth “day,” the word used is ma·ʼohrʹ, which refers to the source of light.
I don't think that this argument on Hebrew's grounds is correct. I think it is misleading. Is there any scholar in Hebrew here to analyze the above argument?
On the other hand, Richard Elliot Friedman says:
People
have questioned whether the first three days are twenty-four hour days
since the sun is not created until the fourth day. But light, day, and
night are not understood here to depend on the existence of the sun, so
there is no reason to think that the word “day” means anything different
on the first two days (sic)
than what it means everywhere else in the Torah. People’s reason for
raising this is often to reconcile the biblical creation story with
current evidence of the earth’s age. But it is better to recognize that
the biblical story does not match the evidence than to stretch the
story’s plain meaning in order to make it fit better with our current
state of knowledge.
Also Friedman, said:
Note
that daylight is not understood here to derive from the sun. The text
understands the light that surrounds us in the daytime to be an
independent creation of God, which has already taken place on the first
day. The sun, moon, and stars are understood here to be light
sources—like a lamp or torch, only stronger. Their purpose is also to be
markers of time: days, years, appointed occasions