And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
All Commentaries on Genesis 1:4 Go To Genesis 1
Ephrem The Syrian
AD 373
After the brightness [ of the light ] rendered its service for three days, lest, like nothing, it return to nothing, well did God bear witness concerning it by saying "behold, it was very good." [ Gen1:4 ] Although God did not [ actually ] say that the works that preceded the light were very beautiful, He did [ in fact ] say it about them, for though He did not say it of them in the beginning when only these things had come into existence out of nothing, He did say it of them after everything else had come into existence; for He included all that had been made together with all that was created in six days, when He said on the sixth day: "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." [ Gen1:31 ]
Because that first light was created good, it rendered its service by its brightness for three days and it also served, as we say, for the conception and the birth of everything that the earth brought forth on the third day. The sun was in the firmament in order to ripen whatever had sprouted forth under that first light. It is said that from this light and from the fire, which were both created on the first day, the sun, which was in the firmament, was fashioned, while the moon and the stars also came to be from that same first light.
