Deen Academy Tried to Pretend Genesis Attributes Independent Luminosity to the Moon

Creation vs. Evolution: Deen Academy Underlines that Biblical and Quranic Flood (As he sees it) are Not the Same · Deen Academy Tried to Pretend Genesis Attributes Independent Luminosity to the Moon · somewhere else: Deen Academy Tries to Pull a Quick One on John 17:3

https://biblehub.com/interlinear/genesis/1-16.htm

way·ya·‘aś ’ĕ·lō·hîm, ’eṯ-šə·nê [3974 e] ham·mə·’ō·rōṯ
And made God two the lights ...

However, ham·mə·’ō·rōṯ being marked as Strong word number 3974. maor, let's check what that word means.

https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3974.htm

1. (properly) a luminous body or luminary
2. (abstractly) light (as an element)
3. (figuratively) brightness, i.e.cheerfulness
4. (specifically) a chandelier

Wait, chandeliers are not self luminous, they give light because of sth in them, like candles or back then more typically oil.

But the page gives an even better refutation:

Proverbs 15:30

mə·’ō·wr-‘ê·na·yim yə·śam·maḥ-lêḇ;
The light of the eyes rejoiceth the soul

We need not decide whether it's a twinkle of reflected light in an eye that rejoyceth the soul of someone else or whether it's the light coming through your eyes that rejoyceth your own soul, the latter is a clearly defensible interpretation in a cultural parallel to the Gospels. Either way, the eyes are not self luminous. They don't give light inward in a dark room. They don't show your feelings to someone else in a dark room.

However, the Hebrew here has, not ’ō·wr but mə·’ō·wr-, the exact same word that is used about botb Sun and Moon. So the word of the Moon does not prove that Moon is seen as an independent light source.

As for Matthew:

And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be moved
[Matthew 24:29]

Is this saying that moon is ceasing to produce light or ceasing to reflect light?

Because, the sign spoken of is sufficiently miraculous and apocalyptic if Sun and Moon are darkened at the same time. Solar eclipses are at Newmoon only. Lunar eclipses at Fullmoon only. If both are darkened at the same time and stars suddenly either leave voids or turn into bolts falling towards Earth, we can conclude it's not a natural and normal solar eclipse and also not a natiral and normal lunar eclipse.

It is in fact about what is observed in Heaven, as can be seen from the next verse:

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all tribes of the earth mourn: and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty.
[Matthew 24:30]

A very apt application of something said in Providentissimus Deus:

Ordinary speech primarily and properly describes what comes under the senses; and somewhat in the same way the sacred writers-as the Angelic Doctor also reminds us - `went by what sensibly appeared,"(54) or put down what God, speaking to men, signified, in the way men could understand and were accustomed to.

PROVIDENTISSIMUS DEUS
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_18111893_providentissimus-deus.html

However, it seems whoever wrote the Quran had a certain will to insist that God first created the Moon dark and then permitted it to reflect light of the Sun as the phases come. Really a full scientific understanding of when the Moon is not a light, but somehow obviously Moses missed out on the Moon having a dark phase.

Now, what about Ramadan?
How Many Muslims Would Be OK With This?
https://filolohika.blogspot.com/2026/07/how-many-muslims-would-be-ok-with-this.html

It seems the solution is to align the ramadan fast versus eat limits with certain prayers and they are aligned with night and day ideally. Even if concretely up in the land of midnight sun, they are not aligned with day and night as concretely up there.

I'm not disputing that Muslims can solve things like that, but the need for solution comes from the Quran itself being specific about fasting rules, and it seems to be written by someone either unaware that Earth is a globe, where parts will turn towards or away from the sun all the 24 hours, or that the habitable continents, in the North, reach above the polar circle. Somewhat strange for a book also avid to display scientific knowledge, like phases of the Moon ...

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
IX LD after Pentecost
26.VII.2026