John Calvin Commentary Genesis 1:3

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." — Genesis 1:3 (ASV)

And God said. Moses now, for the first time, introduces God in the act of speaking, as if He had created the mass of heaven and earth without the Word. Yet John testifies that

without Him nothing was made of the things which were made, (John 1:3).

And it is certain that the world had been begun by the same efficacy of the Word by which it was completed. God, however, did not put forth His Word until He proceeded to originate light, because in the act of distinguishing, His wisdom begins to be conspicuous. This alone is sufficient to refute the blasphemy of Servetus.

This impure caviler asserts that the first beginning of the Word was when God commanded the light to be, as if the cause, indeed, were not prior to its effect. Since, however, by the Word of God things which were not came suddenly into being, we ought rather to infer the eternity of His essence.

Therefore, the Apostles rightly prove the deity of Christ from this: since He is the Word of God, all things were created by Him. Servetus imagines a new quality in God when He begins to speak. But we must think very differently concerning the Word of God: namely, that He is the Wisdom dwelling in God, and without which God could never be; the effect of which, however, became apparent when the light was created.

Let there be light. It was fitting that the light, by which the world was to be adorned with such excellent beauty, should be created first; and this also was the commencement of the distinction (among the creatures). It did not, however, happen through thoughtlessness or by accident that the light preceded the sun and the moon.

To nothing are we more prone than to confining the power of God to those instruments He employs. The sun and moon supply us with light; and, according to our notions, we so attribute this power to give light to them, that if they were taken away from the world, it would seem impossible for any light to remain.

Therefore, the Lord, by the very order of the creation, bears witness that He holds in His hand the light, which He is able to impart to us without the sun and moon. Furthermore, it is certain from the context that the light was so created as to alternate with darkness.

But it may be asked whether light and darkness succeeded each other in turn over the entire world, or whether darkness occupied one half of it while light shone in the other. There is, however, no doubt that the order of their succession was alternate; but whether it was everywhere day at the same time, and everywhere night also, I would rather leave undecided, nor is it very necessary to be known.