Let There Be Light ... Again?

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.

Even if you've lived under a rock for the past few centuries, you're probably familiar with that first line of the Bible.  You probably also know that the first chapter of Genesis is about God creating the entire universe in under a week, which is impressive when you consider that most creation stories involve multiple gods and unfathomable stretches of time.  Maybe its the fact that God was working alone that causes things to get a little, well ... wonky.

"And 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, and God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.  And the evening and the morning were the first day." - Genesis 1:3-5

Pretty straightforward.  On the first day, God makes light and darkness, night and day.  After all, if he wants to get everything done in seven days, creating the concept of a day is a good place to start.  But wait, on Day 4 ...

"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made stars also.  And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.  And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good." - Genesis 1:14-18.

... he makes the day and night again?  Well, he makes the sun and moon, which I suppose might not have been there before (though exactly what was making the light before the sun and stars?  A giant, holy light bulb?  God's divine patio lanterns?) but then it specifically says he made the lights to divide the day from the night, the light from the darkness.

But this is Day 4. Days and nights have already existed for, well, four days.  Specifically, four "evenings" and "mornings" have passed, with light and darkness already created and separated on Day 1.  To be fair, most people would probably make a few doubles if they had to create the entire universe out of nothing (why else would there be 8000 different species of ants?), but day and night?  You'd think that one would be fairly obvious.

More Genesis shenanigans to come.