Darkness
Darkness in scripture is not a single thing. It is the unformed condition over the deep before God speaks; the alternating half of the created day; the cloud Yahweh draws around himself; the plague poured out on Egypt; the noon-blackening that signals the day of Yahweh; the moral state of those who hate the light; and the ground out of which Christ calls his people. The same word stands behind cosmic, theophanic, judicial, and moral senses, and the language passes between them without breaking.
The Primal Darkness
The first sentence of the Bible places darkness over the unformed waters: "And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Gen 1:2). Speech then names light into being and divides it from what was already there: "And [the Speech of] God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen 1:3); "And [the Speech of] God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night" (Gen 1:5). Darkness is not undone in creation but ordered — given a name, given a place, given a function "to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good" (Gen 1:18). Lights set in the firmament "give light on the earth" (Gen 1:17); darkness keeps its place.
Job presses the question further. Yahweh out of the whirlwind asks, "Where is the way to the place that light stays? And as for darkness, where is its place" (Job 38:19), and remembers clothing the sea with dark swaddling: "When I made clouds its garment, And thick darkness a swaddling-band for it" (Job 38:9). Isaiah states the divine sovereignty over both halves bluntly: "I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I am Yahweh, who does all these things" (Isa 45:7). Jeremiah's vision of judgment runs the creation reel backwards — "I saw the earth, and, look, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light" (Jer 4:23) — using the very phrasing of Gen 1:2 to describe an un-creation.
Daily, darkness still fills its appointed place. "You make darkness, and it is night, In which all the beasts of the forest creep forth" (Ps 104:20). "Day to day gushes out speech, And night to night shows knowledge" (Ps 19:2). Worshipers who serve "by night stand in the house of Yahweh" (Ps 134:1).
Twilight and Night Watches
Inside that ordered alternation, scripture keeps a steady catalogue of the practical hours. Twilight covers David's rout of the Amalekites — "David struck them from the twilight even to the evening of the next day" (1 Sam 30:17) — and the Syrian camp's sudden silence — "they rose up in the twilight, to go to the camp of the Syrians" (2 Kgs 7:5). Job curses his birth-night by asking that "the stars of its twilight be dark: Let it look for light, but have none" (Job 3:9). Ezekiel's symbolic exile is staged at dusk: "you will bear it on your shoulder, and carry it forth in the dark; you will cover your face, that you don't see the land: for I have set you for a sign to the house of Israel" (Ezek 12:6).
Maccabean campaign reports use night as a tactical setting. "They removed from there by night, and went until they came to the fortress" (1Ma 5:29). "The king rose before it was light, and made his troops march on fiercely toward the way of Bethzacharam" (1Ma 6:33). Spies "designed to come upon them in the night" (1Ma 12:26); Jonathan "commanded his men to watch, and to be in arms all night long ready to fight" (1Ma 12:27); the besieged "didn't know until the morning: for they saw the lights burning" (1Ma 12:29); "Tryphon made ready all his horsemen to come that night: but there fell a very great snow" (1Ma 13:22). Yahweh's own decisive action is dated the same way: "About midnight [my Speech] will go out into the midst of Egypt" (Ex 11:4).
Yahweh in the Thick Darkness
The same darkness that creation holds at bay also serves as Yahweh's covering. At Sinai "there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mount, and the voice of a trumpet exceedingly loud; and all the people who were in the camp trembled" (Ex 19:16); then "the people stood far off, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was" (Ex 20:21). Solomon, dedicating the temple, names this condition explicitly: "Yahweh has said that he would stay in the thick darkness" (1 Kgs 8:12; 2 Chr 6:1).
David's psalmody develops the same theophany. "He bowed the heavens also, and came down; And thick darkness was under his feet" (2 Sam 22:10). "He rode on a cherub, and flew; Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind" (2 Sam 22:11). "He made darkness pavilions round about him, Gathering of waters, thick clouds of the skies" (2 Sam 22:12). The companion psalm: "He made darkness his hiding-place, his pavilion round about him, Darkness of water, thick clouds of the skies" (Ps 18:11). And of Yahweh enthroned: "Clouds and darkness are round about him: Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne" (Ps 97:2). Habakkuk, watching God come, sees "[his] brightness was as the light; He had rays [coming forth] from his hand; And there was the hiding of his power" (Hab 3:4). Hebrews, reading Sinai forward, reminds its hearers, "you⁺ have not come to [a mount] that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, and darkness, and tempest" (Heb 12:18).
The Plagues, the Wilderness, the Cross
In Egypt, darkness is plague. "Yahweh said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt" (Ex 10:21). "Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days; they didn't see one another, neither rose anyone from his place for three days: but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings" (Ex 10:22-23). The psalmist remembers the plague as obedience: "He sent darkness, and made it dark; And they did not rebel against his words" (Ps 105:28).
Centuries later, when the Son hangs on the cross, the same sign returns. "When the sixth hour came, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour" (Mark 15:33). "It was now about the sixth hour, and a darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour" (Luke 23:44). Jesus names the moment in his arrest: "When I was daily with you⁺ in the temple, you⁺ did not stretch forth your⁺ hands against me: but this is your⁺ hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53).
The Day of Yahweh
Prophetic judgment co-opts the cosmic darkness. The luminaries fail. "The stars of heaven and its constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine" (Isa 13:10). "The earth will mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have decreed by my [Speech], I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it" (Jer 4:28). Against Pharaoh: "I will cover the heavens, and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. All the bright lights of heaven I will make dark over you, and set darkness on your land, says the Sovereign Yahweh" (Ezek 32:7-8). Joel's locust day is "a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness" (Joel 2:2): "the sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining" (Joel 2:10). Amos collapses the contrast: "Woe to you⁺ who desire the day of Yahweh! Why would you⁺ have the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light" (Amos 5:18); "Will not the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?" (Amos 5:20). And of the noon-blackening: "I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day" (Amos 8:9). Amos again, of Yahweh as the one "who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the Earth" (Amos 4:13). Of false prophets: "it will be night to you⁺, that you⁺ will have no vision; and it will be dark to you⁺, that you⁺ will not have fortune-telling; and the sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will be black over them" (Mic 3:6).
The lament register joins in. "There is a crying in the streets because of the wine; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone" (Isa 24:11). "He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light" (Lam 3:2). Distress in Isaiah is figured as gloom: "they will look to the earth, and see distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness [they will be] driven away" (Isa 8:22). Jeremiah's warning: "Give glory to Yahweh your⁺ God, before he causes darkness, and before your⁺ feet stumble on the dark mountains, and, while you⁺ look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it gross darkness" (Jer 13:16).
The eschaton inherits the figure. "After that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light" (Mark 13:24). "The fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was struck, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; that the third part of them should be darkened, and the day should not shine for the third part of it, and the night in like manner" (Rev 8:12). "He opened the pit of the abyss; and there went up a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit" (Rev 9:2). And on the beast's throne: "the fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast; and his kingdom was darkened; and they gnawed their tongues for pain" (Rev 16:10). At the sixth seal, "the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood" (Rev 6:12). Angelic rebels are "kept in everlasting bonds under darkness to the judgment of the great day" (Jude 1:6); for false teachers "the blackness of darkness has been reserved" (2 Pet 2:17).
The Shadow of Death
Inside this judgment range scripture reaches for a heavier phrase: the shadow of death. "He uncovers deep things out of darkness, And brings out to light the shadow of death" (Job 12:22). "My face is red with weeping, And on my eyelids is the shadow of death" (Job 16:16). "Such as sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, Being bound in affliction and iron" (Ps 107:10). "You have intensely broken us in the place of jackals, And covered us with the shadow of death" (Ps 44:19). And the passing-through: "Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for [your Speech is with] me; Your rod and your staff, they comfort me" (Ps 23:4). Isaiah's promise of a great light is set in that very land: "those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, on them light has shined" (Isa 9:2).
The Days of Affliction
The personal range of the figure carries its own weight. "He has walled up my way that I can't pass, And has set darkness in my paths" (Job 19:8). "When I looked for good, then evil came; And when I waited for light, there came darkness" (Job 30:26). "You have laid me in the lowest pit, In dark places, in the deeps" (Ps 88:6). "Yes, if man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many" (Eccl 11:8). And the answering hope: "Don't rejoice against me, O my enemy: when I fall, I will arise; when I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me" (Mic 7:8). David's own line: "For you are my lamp, O Yahweh; And Yahweh will lighten my darkness" (2 Sam 22:29).
Walking in the Way of Darkness
A second register treats darkness as the moral condition of those who refuse instruction. "Who forsake the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness" (Prov 2:13). "The way of the wicked is as darkness: They don't know at what they stumble" (Prov 4:19). "Whoever curses his father or his mother, His lamp will be put out in the middle of the night" (Prov 20:20). "Yes, the light of the wicked will be put out, And the spark of his fire will not shine" (Job 18:5). Of those without understanding: "They don't know, neither do they understand; They walk to and fro in darkness: All the foundations of the earth are shaken" (Ps 82:5). Of judgment on the wicked: "Let their way be dark and slippery, And the angel of Yahweh pursuing them" (Ps 35:6). And of the prophets of falsehood: "Therefore their way will be to them as slippery places in the darkness: they will be driven on, and fall in it" (Jer 23:12).
The same darkness can be inflicted: "you will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways: and you will be only oppressed and robbed always, and there will be none to save you" (Deut 28:29). "I will bring distress on man, that they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Yahweh" (Zeph 1:17). Or chosen: "we look for light, but see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity" (Isa 59:9). The remedy is named: "Who is among you⁺ who fears Yahweh, who obeys the voice of his slave? He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in the name of Yahweh, and rely on his God" (Isa 50:10).
The Light Has Come
Into this whole landscape the prologue of John drops its claim. "In him was life; and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). "There was the true light, which lights every man, coming into the world" (John 1:9). "And the light shines in the darkness; and the darkness did not apprehend it" (John 1:5). Isaiah's promise — "the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light: those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, on them light has shined" (Isa 9:2) — and the servant-call — "I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles" (Isa 42:6) — converge on Jesus' own self-claim: "I am the light of the world: he who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12).
He warns that the light is offered for a season. "We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day: the night comes, when no man can work" (John 9:4). "But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him" (John 11:10). "Yet a little while is the light among you⁺. Walk while you⁺ have the light, that darkness does not overtake you⁺: and he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you⁺ have the light, believe on the light, that you⁺ may become sons of light" (John 12:35-36). "I have come a light into the world, that whoever believes on me may not stay in the darkness" (John 12:46). The judgment is not Christ withholding the light but those who refuse it: "this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil" (John 3:19).
The first letter of John makes this the test of fellowship. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). "If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don't do the truth" (1 John 1:6). "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). The brother-test exposes the actual state: "He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in the darkness even until now" (1 John 2:9). "He who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn't know where he goes, because the darkness has blinded his eyes" (1 John 2:11). "He who loves his brother stays in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him" (1 John 2:10). "The darkness is passing away, and the true light already shines" (1 John 2:8).
Out of Darkness, Into His Light
Paul's letters develop the rescue side. The mind unwilling to glorify God is left in the dark: "knowing God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened" (Rom 1:21). The day-of-Yahweh language is reused for Christian sobriety: "The night is far spent, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light" (Rom 13:12). "Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and sexual depravity, not in strife and jealousy" (Rom 13:13). "You⁺ are all sons of light, and sons of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness" (1 Thess 5:5); "so then let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober" (1 Thess 5:5-6); "But you⁺, brothers, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you⁺ as a thief" (1 Thess 5:4).
The new identity is itself a light: "for you⁺ were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light" (Eph 5:8). "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, and even better, reprove them as well" (Eph 5:11). "What communion has light with darkness?" (2 Cor 6:14). "Everything that is made manifest is light. Therefore [he] says, Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Eph 5:14). Of believers visible in their generation: "you⁺ may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you⁺ are seen as lights in the world" (Phil 2:15). Of the rescue itself: "[he] delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love" (Col 1:13). "You⁺ are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God's] own possession, that you⁺ may show forth the excellencies of him who called you⁺ out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet 2:9). The illumination is interior: "having the eyes of your⁺ heart enlightened, that you⁺ may know what is the hope of his calling" (Eph 1:18); "Light will shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor 4:6). The verdict is reserved: "judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then each will have his praise from God" (1 Cor 4:5).
The World-Rulers of This Darkness
Behind the moral state, scripture posts a power. "This is your⁺ hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53). "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenly [places]" (Eph 6:12). The bowl-judgment turns the metaphor against the beast: "his kingdom was darkened; and they gnawed their tongues for pain" (Rev 16:10).
Yahweh My Lamp
Against that power scripture offers a constant counter-image. "Yahweh is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?" (Ps 27:1). "For with you is the fountain of life: In your light we will see light" (Ps 36:9). "Yahweh God is a sun and a shield: Yahweh will give grace and glory" (Ps 84:11). "Yahweh is God, and he has given us light" (Ps 118:27). "For you will light my lamp: Yahweh my God will lighten my darkness" (Ps 18:28). "The opening of your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple" (Ps 119:130). Of the wise teacher: "He who fears the Lord discerns judgement, And causes guiding lights to go forth from darkness" (Sir 32:16). And of the daybreak after lament: "To the upright there rises light in the darkness: [He is] gracious, and merciful, and righteous" (Ps 112:4); "the path of the righteous is as the dawning light, That shines more and more to the perfect day" (Prov 4:18); "Light is sown for the righteous, And gladness for the upright in heart" (Ps 97:11). Job's restored vision: "[your] lifetime will be clearer than the noonday; Though there is darkness, it will be as the morning" (Job 11:17). Solomon's dedication is sealed by the same blaze: "the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of Yahweh, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of God" (2 Chr 5:13-14).
Dawn
Prophet and apostle alike read the future as a sunrise. "Then will your light break forth as the morning, and your healing will spring forth speedily" (Isa 58:8). "If you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity be as the noonday" (Isa 58:10). "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of Yahweh has risen on you" (Isa 60:1). "Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising" (Isa 60:3). "To you⁺ who fear my name the sun of righteousness will arise with healing in its wings" (Mal 4:2). Watching for it is itself faith: "the watchman said, The morning comes, and also the night: if you⁺ will inquire, inquire⁺: turn⁺, come⁺" (Isa 21:12). The apostolic word becomes the lamp for that interval: "we have the word of prophecy [made] more sure; to which you⁺ do well that you⁺ take heed, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the day-star arises in your⁺ hearts" (2 Pet 1:19). Sirach in the same idiom: "Yet again I will bring instruction to light as the morning, And will make these things shine forth afar off" (Sir 24:32).
Reflected Light
Believers shine in derived form. "He was the lamp that burns and shines; and you⁺ were willing to rejoice for a season in his light" (John 5:35) — said of John as forerunner. The skin of Moses' face after Sinai: "the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him" (Ex 34:30); "the service of death, written, [and] engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face; which [glory] was passing away" (2 Cor 3:7); now "all of us, with unveiled face looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit" (2 Cor 3:18). "They looked to him, and were radiant; And their faces will never be confounded" (Ps 34:5). "The wisdom of man makes his face to shine, and the hardness of his face is changed" (Eccl 8:1). "Those who are wise will shine as the brightness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever" (Dan 12:3). Of Israel's victorious heroes: "let those who love him be as the sun when he goes forth in his might" (Judg 5:31). Of the watchman on Zion: "until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns" (Isa 62:1). And the eschatological promise that gathers all of these into one image: "The deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness" (Isa 29:18). "The poor man and the oppressor meet together; Yahweh lightens the eyes of them both" (Prov 29:13).
A City Without Night
The closing image cancels the figure altogether. "Your sun will no more go down, neither will your moon withdraw itself; for Yahweh will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning will be ended" (Isa 60:20). "The sun will no more be your light by day; neither will the moon give light to you for brightness: but Yahweh will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory" (Isa 60:19). "Her gates will in no way be shut by day (for there will be no night there)" (Rev 21:25). "The city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine on her: for the glory of God lightened her, and her lamp [is] the Lamb" (Rev 21:23). "Her light was like a most precious stone, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal" (Rev 21:11). "There will be no more night; and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for Yahweh God will give them light: and they will reign forever and ever" (Rev 22:5). The first chapter of Genesis names the darkness Night and lets it run; the last chapter of Revelation closes the figure: there is no more night.