"Let there be light" is an English translation of the Hebrew found in of the Torah, the first part of the Hebrew Bible. In Old Testament translations of the phrase, translations include the Greek phrase γενηθήτω φῶς and the Latin phrases fiat lux and lux sit.
In the Torah, the phrase in which is typically translated in English as "let there be light" is in Hebrew , where is the third-person masculine singular jussive form of "to exist" and means "light." In the Koine GreekSeptuagint the phrase is translated "καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεός γενηθήτω φῶς καὶ ἐγένετο φῶς" — kaì eîpen ho Theós genēthḗtō phôs kaì egéneto phôs. Γενηθήτω is the imperative form of γίγνομαι, "to come into being." The original Latinization of the Greek translation used in the Vetus Latina was lux sit, which has been used occasionally, although there is debate as to its accuracy. In the Latin Vulgate Bible, the Hebrew phrase is translated in Latin as fiat lux. In context, the translation is "dixitque Deus fiat lux et facta est lux". Literally, fiat lux would be translated as "let light be made". The Douay–Rheims Bible translates the phrase, from the Vulgate, as "Be light made. And light was made."
Use by educational institutions
Fiat lux or Sit lux appears in the motto and on the seals of a number of educational institutions, including:
Fiat Lux also appears on the outside of Kerns Religious Life Center at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. The second half of the same verse, Et facta est lux appears on the seal of Morehouse College. business owner delivers a message to Governor Tom McCall in response to his executive order curtailing commercial lighting during the 1970s energy crisis.
In literature
The English phrase concludes Isaac Asimov's The Last Question, symbolizing the godlike growth in power of an extremely advanced computer as it creates a new universe from the ashes of a dead one, drawing comparisons and suggesting an explanation for the biblical Book of Genesis.
Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables speaks about the importance of daring and writes "That cry, 'Audace,' is a Fiat Lux!"
"Fiat Lux!" is the activating phrase in the setting of a Ward Major in Katherine Kurtz's novel series Chronicles of the Deryni.
One of the three main divisions of Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s novel A Canticle for Leibowitz is titled "Fiat Lux".
Alexander Pope adapted the phrase in his epitaph for Isaac Newton, who made important advances in optics: "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in Night. / God said, 'Let Newton be!' and all was light."
"Fiat Lux" is also used in the 1982 novel Die Insel des zweiten Gesichts by Albert Vigoleis Thelen.
