Genesis 1:5
“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”
KJV
Read in Genesis 1Meaning
God's naming of Day and Night gives the separated realms their roles within the narrative's ordered time. The formula then marks the completion of the first day.
Read carefully
Debates about the duration and literary function of the creation days should distinguish the text's repeated evening-morning formula from conclusions supplied by later interpretive systems.
Reflection
The chapter portrays time itself as ordered within creation. Human rhythms of day and night are placed inside a world whose boundaries and names come from God.