Genesis 1:2
Genesis 1:2 has three lines (circumstantial clauses) each with a verb and a subject:
LINE 1: weha'arets hayetah
tohu wabohu
Now the earth was (became) formless
and empty,
LINE 2: wchoshech al-peney
tehom
darkness was over the surface of the deep
LINE 3: we-ruach Elohim
merahepet al peney hamayim.
And the spirit God hovering upon the surface the waters.
See
and hear Genesis 1:2 at this site - http://bible.ort.org/books/torahd5.asp
Three views:
1) Creation once perfect has now become a chaos
2) Creation came from a ancient chaos
3) This verse makes a general statement that will be given more details as the verses progress.
LINE 1:
“Now the earth was formless and empty” (NIV)
“Now, the earth, had become
waste and wild.” (
“The earth was formless and void.” (NASB)
“The earth was formless and desolate.” (TEV)
Tohu wabohu
1) Two words - nouns
a. Tohu – “desert”, “formlessness, confusion, unreality, emptiness”
b. Bohu - “emptiness, void, waste”
2) Bohu only appears 3 times in the OT and all three times with Tohu
a. Isaiah
34:11 – God will stretch out over
b. Jeremiah 4:23 – “I looked at the earth and it was formless (tohu) and empty (bohu).”
3) Tohu is in the OT 23 times
a. 11 times in Isaiah 24:10; 29:21; 34:11; 40:17, 23; 41:29; 44:9; 45:18, 19; 49:4; 59:4)
b. Deut. 32:10 - “In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste (tohu).”
c. Job 6:18 – as “desert” which was a place of death for travelers.
d. Job 26:7 – “He spreads out the northern skies over empty space (tohu); he suspends the earth over nothing.”
e. Isaiah 29:21 – as “false testimony” in Isaiah 29:21
f. Isaiah 41:29 – as the emptiness of idols
g. Isaiah 44:9 – refers to the makers of idols
h. Isaiah 45:18-19 – “For this is what the Lord says – he who created (bara) the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned (jatsar) and made (asah) the earth, he founded it; he did not create (bara) it to be empty (Tohu) but formed (jatsar) it to be inhabited.”
i. Bara-to create new and always done by God
ii. Jatsar-to form, fashion, frame done by God and man
iii. Asah-to do, fashion, accomplish, make
i.
j. NASB Isaiah 45:18, “For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), ‘I am the Lord, and there is none else.’”
k. Darby Isaiah 45:18, “For thus saith Jehovah who created the heavens, God himself who formed the earth and made it, he who established it, --not as waste did he create it: he formed it to be inhabited: --I am Jehovah, and there is none else.”
Hayetah or hayah or haya – means “to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out”
In Genesis 3:22 “haya” is become - “The man has now become like one of us”
“Was” is used in the same sequence concerning Abel just like the earth in Genesis 4:2:
|
|
Genesis 1:1-2 |
Genesis 4:2 |
|
Noun followed by period |
the heaven and the earth. |
bare his brother Abel. |
|
New sentence begins with… |
And |
And |
|
Original noun repeated |
the earth |
Abel |
|
Followed by “was” |
was without form, and void |
was a keeper of sheep |
Uses of “haya”
1) 3:1 “the serpent was wiser”
2) 29:16 “Rachel was pretty”
3) 34:5 “his sons had been in the field”
4) Exod.
1:5 “Joseph was in
5) Jonah
3:3 “now
Create, Make, Fashion
Bara-to create new and always done by God.
Gen. 1:1, 21, 27; Ps. 89:12; Is. 42:5 (Ep.2:10; Rev. 4:11; 10:6)
Jatsar-to form, fashion, frame done by God and man
Gen. 1:7, 16, 25, 31; 2:2, 22; 3:1
Asah-to do, fashion, accomplish, make
2:7, 8, 19; Job 26:13; Ps. 90:2; 94:9; 95:5
LINE 2:
vechoshech al-peney
tehom
darkness was over the surface of the deep
Isaiah 45:7, “I form (yatsar) the light and create (bara) darkness (choshek), I bring (asah) prosperity (shalom, or peace) and create (bara) disaster (ra, or evil); I, the Lord, do (asah) all these things.”
Tehom – means “deep, depths, abyss, the deep, sea, primeval ocean, the grave.
1) Genesis 7:11, In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeeth day of the month, the same day were al the fountains of the great deep (tehom) broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.”
2) Genesis 8:2, “The fountains also of the deep (tehom) and the windows of heaven were stopped , and the rain from heaven was restrained.”
3) Genesis 49:25, “Even by the God of they father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep (tehom) that lies below, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.”
4) The Hebrew word “tehom” is feminine.
5) “tehom” is used 35 times in the Old Testament
6) “tehom” is used without the article 33 of the 35 times (Is. 63:13, Ps. 106:9) which gives it the appearance of a proper name.
7) It is associated with verbs that can be applied only to humans or animals:
a. Gen. 49:25 “blessings of the deep that lies below.” Here “lies” means to crouch like an animal.
b. Habakkuk 3:10 “tehom” (deep) has a voice.
8) Isaiah 51:9,10, “Awake, awake! Clothe yourself with strength, O warm of the Lord; awake , as in days gon e by, as in ggeneratinos of old. Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced that monster through? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over?”
LINE 3:
we-ruach Elohim merahepet al
peney hamayim.
And the spirit God hovering upon the surface the waters.
“weruach elohim” could be translated as:
1) the Spirit of God
2)
the spirit of God
3)
a wind from God
4)
and awesome gale
merahepet is translated these ways :
1) “was moving”
2) “moved”
3) “was hovering”
4) “hovered”
5) “swept”
6) “sweeping”
7) “brooding”
8) “rushing”
9) “swirled”
The verb Merahepet is used 2 times in OT: Jer. 23:9 as “all my bones shake (rahap) and Deut. 32:11 “like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers (rahap) over its young.”
The idea here is that in this formlessness and darkness God is present keeping everything in his control and in his time.
Points:
Two Floods
There have been two floods.
1) Gen. 1:2
2) Gen. 7 – Noah
2 Peter 3:5-7
Age of Earth
The age of man is clearly given in scripture. The age of the earth may be roughly 5 days older than man or the age of the earth may not be given.
Dt. 29:29 says the secret things belong to God. The Bible is written to man, for man and is about man’s time on the earth. The details before man and after the destruction of the earth are few.
To say things have always been the same scientifically is warned against in 2 Peter 3:4 where scoffers will come and say things have always been the same and so they will always be this way. We know from scripture that:
1) In the future science will change. Rev. 21:1 – a new heaven, new earth, no longer any sea. 2 Peter 3:12, 13 elements will melt in the heat.
2) The very act of creation and the apparent process of the six days of creation was writing the laws of physics.
There may be four phases of earth science:
1) The world that was (2 Peter 3:6)
2) The old world (Noah’s 2 Peter 2:5)
3) The present evil world (Gal. 1:4)
4) The world to come (Hebrews 2:5 and 6:5)
Six Days Were “Asah”
Exodus 20:11 – “For in six days the Lord made (asah) the heavens and the earth”
Exodus 31:17 – “For in six days the Lord made (asah) the heavens and the earth.”
When is earth created?
If Genesis 1:1 is a general title or introduction and is talking about the six days of creation, then when is the earth created? On the first day God creates nothing. He separates light and darkness.
If Genesis 1:1 is creation and 1:2 describes it then the whole act of creation including the solar system is in darkness and no form.
Angels
Job 38:4-7 The angels sing for joy at creation
Were they singing at the chaos, darkness, formless earth?
The Morning Star is mentioned.
If the Morning Star sings after verse 1:1 then Lucifer is singing over a chaotic earth.
If the Morning Star sings after day 6 then Lucifer has not fallen when man was created and rebels against God after day 6 but before the fall of man.
Compare Jeremiah 4:23 with Genesis 1:2
In Jer. 4:23 “w/o form, void, darkness” are judgment.
How can the same three words be creation in Gen. 1:2?
Nahum 2:10
The
Matthew 25:41 the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels but not for man.
If Satan falls after day 6 then the fire was prepared for Satan after man’s creation and would have been prepared for man as well. Below is diagram showing the ridiculousness of the sequence:
Not even mentioning:
TOTAL: 130 YEARS
Ez. 28:11-15 when Morning star werved as anointed cherub
Is. 14:12-15 and turmoil in courts of heaven
Rev. 12:4 when a third of angels fell and there was war in heaven and Satan was hurled to the earth
Satan is called “Old Serpant”
Adam was 130 when Seth was born in Gen. 5:2-3
Before Seth was born these things happened:
1) Adam Fell and left garden
2) Cain and Abel were born
3) Cain and Abel grew up, became men and became a farmer and a shepherd
4) Cain and Abel offered sacrifices
5) Cain kills Abel
From the Beginning
The Devil is a murder from the beginning (Jn. 8:44) and sins fro beginning (1 Jn 3:8)Is this Adams of Satan’s beginning? At Lucifer’s beginning he was innocent.