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GENESIS-Segment 1
Chapter 1 Verses 1-2
All scripture is from the King James Version unless otherwise noted. Before beginning this study, I suggest you pray and ask God to guide you through this study. I also suggest that you do you own study of this material in order to ensure its accuracy.
NOTE: All Hebrew and Greek words are normally transliterated. They are presented in their uninflected forms unless otherwise noted.
This study is taken from the notes I made for my Sunday School Class lessons. This study will be taught in segments, beginning with this segment. My notes end with Genesis chapter 23, so this study will go at least through chapter 23.
It is believed that the actual book of Genesis was first set down in writing by Moses. In Hebrew the book is called bereyshith or "in [the] beginning." Even though Moses lived c. 1500 BC, and the book of Genesis was written during that time, the Word of God was in existence since before the beginning. The Word was probably transmitted orally until the time when it was written. There is some speculation among textual critics that there may have been another written document from which Moses drew. But if so, it is no longer extant. When he wrote it, Moses was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and every word, letter, jot and tittle is in the EXACT order in which God wanted it. There is no error.
(Gen 1:1) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
This verse talks about the beginning, that is, the absolute beginning of this world. The Hebrew for "beginning" is reyshith (7225), which means the first in time, place, order or rank. In other words, this is the absolute beginning. The Bible does not tell us how long ago this took place, only that it did. There are those who will tell you that the world is 6000 years old based on the genealogies of the Bible. While this may be true of the amount of time elapsed since Adam, there is no Biblical way to know how long ago the absolute beginning was, as we shall see in verse 2.
(Gen 1:2) And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
There is much speculation among believers as to the exact meaning of this verse. The first phrase may be read: "And the earth BECAME without form (waste) and void." The word translated "was" is hayah (1961). In the next few chapters, in every other place the word is used, the word hayah is translated " became, become, came to pass, come to pass, or let there be."
Here are the next ten verses after 1:2 wherein the word hayah is used, and how it is translated: 1:3-let there be, 1:6-let there be, 1:14-let there be, 2:7-became, 2:10-became, 3:22-is become, 4:3-came to pass, 4:8, came to pass, 4:14-come to pass, 6:1-came to pass. The first time after 1:2 where the word is translated "was" is in 17:1. The KJV uses "when", and Green's Interlinear uses "was," but the connotation is: "when it came to pass that Abram was 99 years old . . ." instead of the denoted "was."
Genesis 1:2 is one of the very few places the word is translated "was." It is certainly viable that "became" is the correct rendering of this word (here it is literally haytah, which is the perfect 3rd person feminine singular). The definition of hayah is: to exist, i.e. be or become, come to pass. It is always emphatic hence the passive "was" is unusual. When the verse is read: "and the earth came to pass (or became) waste and void," it sheds a whole new light on the possible age of the earth.
There is a BIG difference between " And the earth was without form, and void; ", and "And the earth became without form and void." The implication is that the earth was created at one point in time, period, stop. Then the earth became waste and void. In fact, this very thought is borne out by scripture:
(2 Pet 3:3-7) Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, {4} And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. {5} For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: {6} Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: {7} But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
The object of Peter's remarks here is that the scoffers have no knowledge of what the beginning of creation was actually like. He goes on to tell them. He says that the beginning was by the word of God Who spoke the heavens and earth into existence. Then he states that the heavens were of old and the earth by water and through water was being held together by the word of God. The literal Greek here is: ex hudatos kai di' hudatos. According to Robertson, this is a Greek idiom meaning "out of the primeval watery chaos." In other words, the earth was standing out of the primeval, watery chaos. Here are Robertson's remarks concerning this phrase:
—A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, 1930, Louiville, KY.
In verse six, Peter says that the world that then was perished because it was overflowed with water. Peter is not referring to Noah's flood. Here are three reasons why: One, this flood was worldwide and catastrophic and the world perished, leaving no one or thing untouched. In Noah's flood, seven people and countless animals were delivered. In this flood, all perished. The word translated "perish" here is apoleto from apollumi (622), which means fully destroyed, leaving nothing but waste and void.
Two, because Peter sees a difference between "the heavens and earth which are now" and "the world that then was." Noah was under the heavens that are now. The heavens were not destroyed in Noah's flood; they are the same as today. The heavens of old were in existence in Gen 1:1, before the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. The heavens which are now were created on the second day (Gen 1:6).
And three, the use of the idiom meaning "out of the primeval watery chaos" indicates Peter was talking about primeval creation and not Noah's flood.
There is another scriptural reference to this destruction of the earth, but first, let's go back to Gen 1:2:
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
The words "without form, and void" are the English equivalent of the Hebrew tohu va bohu. Tohu (8414) means "to lay waste" and bohu (922) means "to be empty." The phrase tohu va bohu is used in Jeremiah 4:23-31. There, God details the coming destruction of the world in the Day of the LORD. The same imagery is used to show the end of the world that was used for the beginning, that "world that then was" before creation.
Isaiah also gives us a clue to this subject: (Isa 45:18) For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain [tohu-empty], he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. If God did not create the earth empty, but rather to be inhabited, it stands to reason that if the earth became waste and void, then it could not be inhabited, and since it was created to be inhabited, it was not created during the six day creation. It was created originally to be inhabited; then for reasons not specified in the Bible, it became uninhabited and waste and void.In other words, the earth was created, then became waste and void, and then the six-day creation events took place. There are theories about that subject but there is not room here for those theories. As an example, some teach the possibility that the rebellion of Satan (Isa 14:12-15 & Eze 28:14-19) was the reason for this destruction of the world. That is a theory and cannot be proven by scripture
The Spirit of God, or the Holy Spirit moved gently over the deep waters covering the earth. The word translated "moved upon" is merahepet from rachaph (7363) which literally means to hover softly or to brood. A mother hen broods over her eggs, gently caring for them and keeping the warm and alive. We have similar imagery in this verse. God is brooding over the earth, gently caring for it and keeping it alive. God kept the earth alive to bring flesh man into it, giving him a chance to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus. He then prepared Earth for His new creation.
This interpretation allows for the Earth to be very old. The beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, could have been eons ago. The six days of creation happened a relatively short time ago, that is somewhere around six thousand years ago, but the creation of earth happened at an unknown time. Archaeologists, paleontologists, astronomers, and geologists tell us that the earth is somewhere around three to four billion years old, and that is certainly possible. But paleontologists and archaeologists sometimes have an agenda that supports Darwinian or macro-evolution. Therefore their theories are suspect. If the earth is indeed very old, that does not mean that evolution happened. It means that God created, then destroyed, then recreated. There was no Darwinian evolution. But the earth may very well be three to four billion years old.
The normal translation of Gen 1:2 has brought a sharp rift between science and the Bible. The view presented above allows for a symbiotic relationship between science and the Bible. After all, the old cliché: "when science and the Bible oppose one another it is not because the Bible is incorrect, rather, it is because our understanding of the Bible is incorrect," is true.
This ends segment one.
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