Where did the darkness come from?

Where did the darkness come from?

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. - (Genesis 1:3-5)

This is a very interesting question because we can see that God created all things, but darkness is not mentioned as light is in the first Book of Genesis as God says "Light be" but he does not say "darkness be." But in creating light, God certainly created darkness, for where the light was absent, there would be darkness, for God created all from nothing (creatio ex nihilo).

Everything starts with a dark and watery primeval state. Creation involves God organizing the waters and putting them in place so that life can flourish.

God says "Light be" but he does not say "darkness be."

God divides the waters into the waters above (kept at bay by a solid sky dome) and from the waters below (the seas), and the seas from the land. In this way God creates the sky, the sea, and the land as distinct zones. God organizes creation by moving water around; however, God does not create water.

This suspicion is reinforced by the way in which most OT scholars (though not all) translate the opening of Genesis: Something like this—"In the beginning of God's creating the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep . . ." In other words, creatio ex nihilo has many theological merits (and I am not suggesting that the Church abandon it) but it is very likely that Genesis 1 does not teach it. The interests of Genesis lie elsewhere.

So it seems that in Genesis 1 (and that's all I'm talking about here) darkness and water are not so much brought into existence as contained and funneled to serve divine purposes. They are not evil but they are only declared "good" by God when they have been constrained and given a functional role in the cosmos.

So there, woven into the very fabric of the good created order, are the remnants of primeval darkness and chaotic seas — under divine control but dangerous none the less (as Noah's flood shows). - Did God create the darkness and the sea?

Let me answer from the point of view of physics: Darkness is not a thing. It is merely the absence of light. So it does not need to be created. Wherever God did not put any of the light that He created, there would be darkness. If God had never created light at all (but had created space) then there would be darkness everywhere.

EDIT: A comment complained about my use of physics rather than Christian doctrine. I tend not to distinguish between the various sources of truth, especially when science solves what appears to be a theological problem. To support without physics my claim that darkness is not a thing but merely the absence of light, let me quote St. Augustine: "where light is not, darkness must needs be" [City of God, Book XI, Ch.9]. So before the creation of light, there was necessarily darkness, without any need for God to create it.

“I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭45:7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

If you have any doubt God created darkness. He says as much.

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I sense I need to add some details about this darkness because it’s not being interpreted from a Biblical stand point but pseudoscientific dogma, which has not been proven. Also western thinking tend to categorize things into good and bad, but light and dark are not good and bad, they are necessary scales on a balance, they bring equilibrium.

Darkness according to God has within it hidden treasures that can be found no where else but in darkness.

“And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭45:3‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Darkness is not evil. Darkness is darkness and sometimes we are required to be in darkness, living godly lives trusting God shrouded with darkness and refusing to light our own lights to ease the frustration of being in the dark.

“Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭50:10‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Yes in this verse it’s not speaking of physical darkness but being in ignorance of some knowledge.

God lives in darkness and furthermore, desires to live in thick darkness.

“Then spake Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.” ‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭8:12‬ ‭KJV‬‬

God says ultimately that darkness is good.

“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭1:31‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Even if you want to argue that darkness is not created or a thing, He still separated it from light, called it night and says it was very good.

The darkness appears to have been there from the beginning:

the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the water

Genesis 1:2, NABRE