Genesis Segment 1

(Chapter 1 Verses 1-2)

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. The Providence of God has also preserved it through the ages and it is still the way He wanted it.

(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. There are also those who believe the world to be very old—much older than 6000 years. In fact, many advocate an earth that is millions of years old. Verse 2 will help us to understand more about this.

(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 First View

This position is espoused by several teachers in several venues. Arnold Murray is a teacher of this doctrine; a professor at my seminary taught this doctrine; the NIV Study Bible mentions this doctrine in its study notes. I am certain that many more hold to this teaching, as well.

The first phrase may be read: "And the earth BECAME without form (waste) and void." The word translated "was" is hayah, היה, (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."

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. Some think that this thought is borne out by scripture. Their argument is something like this:

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" could be an acceptable rendering of this word (here it is literally haytah. היתה, which is the perfect 3rd person feminine singular form of the word). 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.

(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:

In verse six, Peter says that the world that then was perished because it was overflowed with water. Peter is most likely 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 vabohu (תהו ובהו. Tohu, תהו, (8414) means "to lay waste" and bohu, בהו; (922) means "to be empty." Va, ו, is the combining form, 'and'. The phrase tohu vabohu 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. Some would say that 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 quite a few that teach this idea, and it is a possible interpretation of this verse.

There are theories about why the earth was created, destroyed, and then recreated. However, 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) occured after the creation of the earth, and that was the reason for this destruction of the world. That is a theory and cannot be fully proven by scripture, though there are some verses that appear to corroborate it.

The Second View

There is a grammatical problem with rendering the word hayah as became. The inflected word is the qal perfect 3rd person feminine singular form of היה, hayah. The perfect tense denotes action already taken. In English, the verb tense that denotes completed action is the past tense. In this case, the past tense of 'be' is 'was', which must be the correct rendering. Hebrew grammarians make the case that the English rendering of the Hebrew perfect tense is simply the past tense. Grammatically speaking, the phrase should be read, "and the earth was without form and void." Therefore, with this reading, the earth was waste and void when it was created. It was created this way and then God gave it form and substance in the six days of creation.

One can see how the Hebrew scholars living in the days before Christ understood this passage by reading it in the Septuagint. The Septuagint was completed some 2 centuries before Christ. With it we can understand the mindset of the scholars that translated the Hebrew Torah into Greek. The Hebrew translators of the Septuagint rendered the phrase in question, η δε γη ην αορατος και ακατασκεναστος, he de ge en aoratos kai akataskenastos, or "and the earth was invisible and unformed." They used ην, en (was) to render היתה, haytah. In the Greek, specifically with the verb 'to be', the imperfect is the simple past tense both in Greek and in English. The authority for that statement is Dr. Strong:

The Greek ην is the imperfect tense of the word ειμι, eimi, to be. Thus the Septuagint scholars understood that Genesis 1:2 stated that the "earth was without form and void", not that it became formless and void.

The argument that Jeremiah uses the same phrase, tohu vabohu, thus Jeremiah speaks of the time of creation is inaccurate. One cannot take a word or two out of context and then apply the meaning of that phrase to the meaning of another phrase in another context. In context, Jeremiah is speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem. He is not speaking of the time of creation. It is inaccurate at best to do such a thing and deceitful at worst. Some do, however, make that connection.

And, finally, the fact that the passage in Isaiah says that God did not create the earth empty, but to be inhabited does not negate the usage of the perfect tense in Genesis 1:2. Yes, God created the earth to be inhabited, and the creation took six days to complete. This verse is only about the first day. Hence, the argument cannot be made that the passage in Genesis is limited by the passage in Isaiah to Genesis 1:2 only. On the contrary, it relates to the entire creation week. The context of Isaiah 45:18 is that the LORD God does nothing in secret, but all in view.

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 mankind into it, giving us a chance to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus. He then prepared Earth for His new creation.

This interpretation may allow 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 may have 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. Perhaps 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.

Then again, it may not. God can do anything He wishes, including making light to be fully set in place over the vast distances of the cosmos all at once. This would give the appearance of light origination many billions of years ago, which is the time it would take for light to reach the earth from the furthest points of space. Yet if God set it in place 6,000 years ago it would only be 6,000 instead of billions of years old. Man's feeble attempts to explain the universe by allowing it to be of great age, may simply be foolishness to God.

The normal translation of Gen 1:2 has brought a sharp rift between science and the Bible. The first 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.

Revised December 27, 2007.