I saw this claim in the footnotes to one of the most respected Biblical translations, commenting on the creation story in the book of Genesis.
As mentioned, I'm especially interested in if we have records of anyone else who didn't quite make the connection (from any culture, or any time period).
I'm assuming this is in reference to the Genesis 1 account of the "separation" of light and dark into day and night prior to the actual creation of the sun and moon as heavenly bodies. While this might be theologically interesting as a cosmological narrative, I'm unaware of any evidence that the ancient Hebrews ever considered the sun not to be the source of daylight. Would you care to cite the footnote in question?
I don't have my books with me but I do have an NIV study Bible. Here is an excerpt that gives a probable historical/critical answer for the "lights" in Genesis 1:14-16.
"The words “sun” and “moon” seem to be avoided deliberately here, since both were used as proper names for the pagan deities associated with these heavenly bodies. They are light-givers to be appreciated, not powers to be feared, because the one true God made them (see Isa 40:26). Since the emphasis is on the greater light and lesser light, the stars seem to be mentioned almost as an afterthought. But Ps 136:9 indicates that the stars help the moon “govern the night.” govern. The great Creator-King assigns subordinate regulating roles to certain of his creatures (see vv. 26,28)."
The claim from the translation you cited seems rather unlikely to me.
I've heard something like that; it's in the Genesis Rabbah.
In Genesis, Adonai makes light before he makes the sun. The argument goes that light is an emanation of God's own brilliance, and all the light in our world belongs to that essential light radiated from God. The sun is where the light is, but it's not making light, God is.
But it doesn't really have to do with dawn and sunset. The Torah is assiduous about delineating zmanim based on not just sunup and sundown, but daybreak (some light) and nightfall (no light) that later commentaries linked to explicit declination angles of the sun, approximate minutes, etc.
I'm not exactly certain where to point you to the Rabbah, because I am not well-versed in Internet Judaism, I am mostly aware because the passage has a great deal of commentary in Kaballah which uses the word 'light' to mean something else entirely.
EDIT: Fixed a word.