Bible Contradiction? When were the stars made?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: When were the stars made?

Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:

On the fourth day of creation, after the earth was made.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

“God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. 17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.” (Genesis 1:16-19)

Before the earth was made.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you [a]have understanding, 5 Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the measuring line over it? 6 On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, 7 When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?.” (Job 38:4-7)

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

1. When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction.  A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time.  To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
2. One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible.  See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.  Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do.  But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
3. The skeptic tries to pit Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:16-19 as affirming the claim “Stars were created on the fourth day of creation, after the earth was made” against Job 38:4-7 as affirming “Stars were created before the earth was made.”
4. One need to as if the skeptics cited the passages properly.
5. Looking at the sequence of Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:16-19 we see it is correct to conclude the “Stars were created on the fourth day of creation, after the earth was made.”
6. It seems problematic to interpret Job 38:4-7 as affirming “Stars were created before the earth was made.”
   1. On the Skeptic Annotated Bible website it actually quote parts of the passage from the King James version: “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? … When the morning stars sang together.”  The skeptic not quoting the passage in its entirely seems like a rather deliberate omission of key words that indicate this is not a contradiction.
   2. Don’t forget Job’s literary form is poetry as oppose to Genesis 1 which is narrative in its literary genre.  This is important to keep in mind.  I would defer to the narrative account for literal historical time sequences.
   3. Looking at Job 38:7 I think the two lines are important in interpreting what’s going on.  I think the first line and the second line are synonymous.  That is, it is reinforcing the point by repeating.  I say this because notice the first and second line the verb involves singing and shouting for joy.  While the second line the subjects are “sons of God” which namely are angelic beings I think the first subjects “morning stars” are not literal morning stars but actually another name for angelic beings.
   4. Isaiah 42:12 hints that the morning stars are heavenly beings also: “How you have fallen from heaven, You star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who defeated the nations!”  This historically has been understood as Satan.
   5. Remember the poetic nature of Job lean support to interpreting the morning stars as angelic heavenly beings.
   6. Also don’t forget the book of Job is rich with insights for readers on heavenly beings; so don’t miss out on angelic beings being referred to here especially since there’s a parallel second line in the verse that explicitly refer to “sons of God.”
7. If Job 38:7 is talking about angelic heavenly beings instead of heavenly bodies we today in English call stars, then there is not contradiction with Genesis 1.
8. Even if one does not agree with my interpretation of Job 38:7 as references to angelic heavenly being as the “morning stars” don’t forget Job 38:7 is poetic and not meant to be sequential historical narrative like in Genesis 1.  God could have asked rhetorically Job what little he knew, did he know who laid out the cornerstone of the world and was there heavenly stars singing at the same time?
9. There is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
10. We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity.  The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible.  In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview.  Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”