When were the angels created, before or during the first day of creation?
Robert Sungenis answers that the angels must have been created during the first day, since nothing existed alongside God before creation, and Job 38:7 has them singing at creation. He holds that Genesis is not concerned with the angels' creation, rejects Augustine's reading of them as the first-day light, and notes they existed before they tempted Adam and Eve.
A viewer notes that Job 38:7 seems to show the angels witnessing the creation of the earth, and asks whether the angels were created before or after day one.
Answer
We do not know exactly, but they would have to be created during day one, because nothing existed with God prior to God creating. Job 38:7 is the only passage in the whole Bible that gives us a hint about when the angels were made, and if the angels are singing at God's creation, then we assume they were created either simultaneously with the creation or just before it. Genesis chapters one and two are simply not interested in when the angels were created; they are interested in God creating man, the Garden of Eden, and the test God places on man. Some of the Fathers got bent out of shape that Genesis 1 does not mention the angels, and St. Augustine, for example, forced an interpretation where the angels are the light created on the first day, which got his spiritual reading all tangled up. But there is no need for that. We do know the angels had to be created before Adam and Eve were in the garden, because angels begin to tempt them, and they cannot be created before the physical world; beyond that, we simply do not know for sure.