DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
The greater light and the lesser light. Genesis 1:16 says God made "the two great lights" to rule the day and the night, and made the stars. The words sun and moon are not in the chapter. Michael Coogan and Cynthia Chapman, in their textbook on the Old Testament, point out that sun and moon are common words elsewhere in the Bible.
Why it’s interesting
Coogan and Chapman think the writers picked those words on purpose. In Babylon's creation story, and others from the ancient Middle East, the sun and the moon were gods. Calling them two lights that God made, they say, avoids even a hint that those gods are in the story.
Scholarly consensus
Learn the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.