Look - Something Is Missing Between the First Two Verses of Genesis
Sunday, June 16, 2013 22:09
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LOOK-SOMETHING IS MISSING BETWEEN THE FIRST TWO VERSES OF GENESIS
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For at least 2000 years church scholars and rabbis have noticed a strange thing about the first two verses in Genesis. After the creation of the heavens and the earth in verse one, something happened that resulted in the ruined earth we find in verse two. There is a chasm of missing time between the two verses. What happened to caused the earth to become a chaotic ruin during this gap of time?
This mysterious gap reveals, what turns out to be, the central drama of the ages – read on.
Since there is a gap of time between the two verses this is called “The Gap Theory”.
Let’s look at the first two verses to see exactly what they say about this gap of time. Verse one tells us about the original creation. Verse two begins the six day record of God restoring the earth that had become a ruin after the original creation.
VERSE ONE – In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
This part is a little complicated but it gets better.
MERISMS Verse one is a summary verse that tells us how everything we see came into being. Some claim it is a title but it is not. “And” in verse 2 shows that verse one cannot be a title.
Verse one is what is called a merism, a feature of Biblical poetry.
For example, in Genesis 1:1, when God creates the heavens and the earth (KJV), the two parts combine to show that God created the whole universe.
Similarly, in Psalm 139, the psalmist declares that God knows my downsitting and mine uprising; indicating that God knows all that he does.
An example of this is given in The Online Dictionary of Language Terms:
“merism, a figure of speech in which the whole thing is mentioned by naming some of its parts.
Example -
(1) He searched high and low
(he searched everywhere).
(2) God created the heavens and the earth
(God created the universe)”
So, verse one just tells us that somewhere back in time God created everything we see. It does not tell us when this happened. Ages could have rolled by between verses one and two. At some point something caused the earth to become a ruin.
VERSE TWO – And (but) the earth was (became) without form, and void;
Verse two does not speak of the original creation; it begins the history of the six days when the earth was restored. We see this from the following facts:
(1) The earth already exists before the first day. The first day starts with the earth already being a waste and a ruin. The earth was not created on the first day, it already existed.
(2) The word translated “and” is an adversative conjunction like our word “but” and it is translated this way in the Jewish Septuagint which shows the Jewish thinking on this verse. God created the earth “but” something happened.
(3) The word “was” is more properly translated “became” or “came to be” because it is an intransitive verb (active transition) For example, in Gen.19:26, Lot’s wife “became” a pillar of salt. (same Hebrew word)
(4) “Without form and void” ( Hebrew- Tohu-Va-Vohu) The Bible explicitly says that God did not originally create the world this way.
Isaiah 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( same (Hebrew word), he formed it to be inhabited:”
Since it was not created this way something must have happened to it.
According to Jeremiah 4: 23 this condition is a result of a judgment.”I beheld the earth, and, lo, [it was] without form, and void;(same Hebrew words) and the heavens, and they [had] no light.”
So, the ruined earth was a result of a judgment by God.
(5) The word “create” (bara) in verse one is different from the word “made” (asah) used in the restoration of the ruined earth. Word Bara – create out of nothing Asah – the arrange what was created in vs. one
My translation: In the distant past God created the universe but (later) it became a desolate ruin.
The “Gap Theory” is not new. It has been a part of church and Jewish doctrine for at least 2000 years.
Here is what some of the ancient writers had to say about these two verses:
St Thomas Aquinas, The Second Book of Sententiarum ”but it seems better to maintain that the creation was prior to the six days”
Targum Onkelos 2nd. century and medieval Jewish writers ” Nor is this world inhabited by man the first of things early created by God. He made several other worlds before ours, but he destroyed them all, because He was pleased with none before he create ours.”
Zohar 1st and 2nd century A.D.”And these are the generations of the destruction which is signified in vs. two of chapter one. The earth was Tohu and Bohu. These are indeed the worlds of which it is said the blessed God created them and destroyed them, and, on that account, the earth was desolate and empty. Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai
WHAT CAUSED THE RUINED EARTH?
The fall of Satan caused the earth to become a ruin.
The judgment described in Jeremiah above is exactly what we see. Satan’s fall occurred during this “gap” of time. You can read about the fall of Satan and the angels in Rev. 12: 3&4, Ezek 28:13, and Isaiah 14 13-14.
Satan and the angels were created before man.
The angels were there when God created the earth. Job 38:4-7 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the (measuring) line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God (angels) shouted for joy?
Phil. 2:6 tells us this about this about Christ in eternity past: ASV ”who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped…”
Existing is “hyparcho” a present, active, participle – He always existed. Form is “morphe” – the form by which a person or thing strikes the vision, external appearance
Since the Lord always existed in a form that could be seen, who saw him? His form is what the angels could see.
When Satan made his appearance early in the third chapter of Genesis he was already a fallen angel.
THE DRAMA OF THE AGES BEGINS.
The earth is center stage in the drama of the ages.
When Satan fell it looked like creation would forever be in ruins. What would God do? God promised the angels that he had a plan already in place.
Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
Who did God make this promise to before the world began? It had to be to the angels.
The plan of salvation was put on place before Satan brought ruin to the universe.
Rev. 13:8 He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
The foundation of the world is interesting. Actually it should be the casting down, or overthrow of the world. Before the casting down of the world brought by Satan’s fall, God already had a plan and He promised the angels all would be well.
For an in-depth study of the real meaning of the term “foundation of the world” see this:
This explains the interest of the angels in the story of redemption. 1 Peter 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
The followers of the Lamb became a spectacle for angels. I Cor. 4:9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.
The Church has become a university for angels. Through Christ and his followers the angels learn about God’s wisdom and faithfulness.
Eph. 3:9&10 And to make all [men] see what [is] the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly [places] might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
One day soon, Satan’s kingdom will be overthrown and Christ and the saints will take over the rule of the universe.Rev. 20:4 NLT Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge.
In the end the universe will be restored to order.
1 Cor. 15 24-28 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.”[a] But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.
Then the saints will judge the angels.
1 Cor 6:3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels?
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All good, thought-provoking stuff Mike.
While the Adamic race is around 6,000 years old, I am open minded about the age of the earth since I don’t know the truth about it. I tend to lean towards the “gap theory”. For those who are interested, here is a link with more info on it:
http://www.kjvbible.org/gap_theory.html
However, I don’t write off the Young Earth Creationists because of the dating problems with modern science. When evolutionists claim a dinosaur bone they found with soft tissue on it is 68 million years old, I have to laugh and wonder why they won’t question their dating calculations (actually, I know why
, they don’t want to bring the evolution paradigm into question).
I also would like to throw out some food for thought concerning the paradox of the first 2 chapters of Genesis.
In the beginning (GEN 1:1) God, who is Spirit, created the physical universe we find ourselves living in. The Spirit world begat the material world—not the other way around. The spiritual gives birth to the physical. Spirit first, physical second.
GEN CHP 1 gives us the order of things created in the PHYSICAL UNIVERSE and GEN CHP 2 gives us the order of things created in the SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE. One gave birth to/spawned/begat the other. That is, the spiritual order in GEN CHP2 gave birth to the physical order of creation described and sequenced in GEN CHP 1.
On DAY 5 of creation of the physical universe, God made the fishees and the fowl (GEN 1:21). On DAY 6 of Creation, God made the beasts of the earth that walketh and creepeth upon the earth (GEN 1:24) and then God created mankind and gave him dominion over the fishees, fowls, and beasts:
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
—GEN 1:26
And so the sequence of events as delineated in the timeline in GEN CHP 1, which is the physical timeline of the created material physical universe (of which time is a function of) is this:
1. Fowl
2. Beasts
3. Mankind/Adam+Eve
But in GEN CHP 2, we are privy to the big-bang-spontaneous-spiritual-combustion-explosion-forever-existing-Spirit-of-God-kind of viewpoint, and are given the order of creation in the spiritual world, which manifested or gave birth to the ever expanding physical universe we find ourselves living in. And so GEN CHP 2 tells us the order of things created in the spiritual world and it was this:
First came that special handiwork of creation made in the image of God, mankind or Adam:
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
—GEN 2:7
And then Adam was given dominion over the beasts and fowl, who were created AFTER him in the spiritual timeline of things:
“And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”
—GEN 2:19
NOTE: NAMING the animals gave ADAM dominion over them (GEN 2:19 dovetails with GEN 1:26).
So to pull all this altogether:
The order of creation in the spiritual world was this:
1. Adam/mankind (GEN 2:7)
2. Beasts (GEN 2:19)
3. Fowl (GEN 2:19)
And so in a Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) kind of way, the spiritual timeline of Mankind/Adam first, beasts second, and fowl third, gave birth to or spawned the order of things created in the physical timeline as this:
1. Fowl (GEN 1:21)
2. Beasts (GEN 1:24 )
3. Mankind/Adam (GEN 1:26 )
am123 Great thoughts on this. I agree that there are problems with dating. The usual agenda is to square something with evolution. Jonathan Gray has a good book about the problem with dating: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Mens-Secrets-REVISED-ED/dp/1572584033/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371517934&sr=1-1&keywords=Jonathan+gray
Here are three well done, entertaining, thought provoking videos on the Gap Theory:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQzVrmAZK_s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O90Mw7W3Li8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rprmZ36ngrg
Interesting videos Mike, thanks for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed them.
LOOK-SOMETHING IS MISSING BETWEEN YOUR EARS!
Touche.
Nice article Mike. There may have been millions of years between verse two and verse three also. Plus you can have all the dinosaurs and pre-historic man you want between verses one and two. Thus Christians don’t look like idiots when scientific folks insist the world is ancient, as is the ‘ancient serpent’.It’s interesting that the first thing God said was “Let there be light” and Lucifer means “barer of light”. Perhaps it was he who pulled the switch? I think you can find E = MC squared in the first few verses as God restored the earth to what it is now.
@Patrick Heron Yes, millions of years, and I am glad that you see the possibility of a pre-Adamic race. That puts you in the company of great men like G. H. Pember, Bullinger et al. An interesting thing about “let there be light”… A reference, by Paul, to the Gap Theory regarding this. According to some Biblical historians, the Jews in Paul’s day understood that statement to mean the light that began to shine again into a darkened and ruined earth that God had destroyed. Paul may have had that thought in mind when he wrote this verse about the light that shines in our darkened and ruined heart.
2 Cor. 4:6
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Mike, can you explain how God created man in his own image. I am under the impression that God created man and told satan to bow at the creation of Adam and satan refused. So if God created man when satan already fell from heaven, why did he tell satan to bow before his creation. I guess this is why satan wishes to destroy mankind because we are God’s created image.
@ engineer I think, we are created in God;s image, means, like Him, we are a triunity. I think Satan hates man because he knows man’s destiny is to rule the universe instead of the angels.
Has anyone here read the : Sumerian Texts? The Emerald tablets of Thoth?
It may shed a light on this subject for you. Thanks for the story Mike. So true but yet there are other ancient texts to review. So much was left out of the KJV so where is it and why did they? To deceive us. The whole truth is out there if one seeks it and puts it all together like a puzzle, the Big picture of life. A quest for sure.
@Bobbyray All truth is God’s truth. I see the Bible as “The Point of Reference” for all truth. It is the standard by which all truth, wherever it is found, can be assayed.
The Bible is an extremely condensed book; every word weighs ten thousand pounds. If all the books were in the Bible that people have suggested were left out, the world could not hold it.
John 21:25 NLT Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.
You are printing old but well-known ‘stuff’. But like all others you really don’t address the problem.
LIKE where did dinosaurs come from?
Who created them?
Why did they all die?
“Stuff” like that. Do us a favor and explain the unexplainable if you want to make your mark!
Anonymous Go back and read my article again. I have surreptitiously hidden the answer to your questions between the lines.
“For at least 2000 years church scholars and rabbis have noticed a strange thing about the first two verses in Genesis. After the creation of the heavens and the earth in verse one, something happened that resulted in the ruined earth we find in verse two. There is a chasm of missing time between the two verses. What happened to caused the earth to become a chaotic ruin during this gap of time? ”
A good point for a change and can easily be answered. First though, Christianity has existed for 1’600 years, not 2’000. As you also claim “at least 2000 years”, you are implying it is a lot older again. I ask you, how can something exist before the thing it’s based on existed? Is that a Freudian slip, you know it’s all plagiarised from older belief systems?
But to answer the point, Genesis is a fragment of the ancient Sumerian creation epic. It tells how Earth was originally a lot larger, it was smashed to pieces by another planet sucked into our solar system by Jupiter. Genesis was not added to the Israelites belief system until after the 1st temple period when they were captives in Babylon, aka Sumeria.
Not all of the biblical Genesis originates from the Sumerian creation epic. For example the story of Noah and his ark, originates from the Black sea area and probably dates back to when the below sea level Mediterranean basin flooded, because the land bridge at Gibraltar broke and allowed the sea in. Estimated to have taken place c10’000 BCE during the fasted melt period of our current interglacial. The sea filled up the Mediterranean basin and overflowed into the Black sea, drowning every settlement and city along its banks.
In Pagan theology the world starts with a flood and ends in a final conflagration, plagiarised by Christianity into a final judgement at the end of the world.
It’s ‘El of the Elohim’. El is singular and masculine, Elohim is plural and feminine. El is the 3rd aspect of the Semites solar deity. osirIS + RA + EL = ISRAEL.
The original allegorical story of El and the Elohim:
El was out hunting one (shining his light), when he came across two goddesses Asherah and Rhomerah, (dusk and dawn). He cooked them a meal (warmed up Earth and provided the right conditions), and asked them if they wanted to remain his daughters (dusk and dawn are the product of sunlight on Earth), or become his wives (produce life). They both agreed to become his wives. The union produced El’s only begotten son Baal, the god of weather, fertility, abundance, crops etc. The product of benign sunlight on Earth does indeed produce abundance.
Osiris represents solar minimum activity, he is chopped to pieces by Set (dark) and becomes impotent, his penis falls in the Nile and is eaten by fish. His wife Isis gathers his body parts back together and fashions a penis from gold. She conceives Horus from the dead Osiris. Later on Horus performs miracles, walks on water, feeds the many, is associated with the lion (Leo) and the lamb (Aries), he resurrects his father Osiris, aka the biblical story of Jesus resurrecting Lazarus.
Ra represents solar maximum activity, he is represented by a giant eye, he burns everything with his fiery wrath.
El represents balanced solar activity and thus abundance. All of it is ancient astronomical allegory, not literal.
Mike
I know this is an older hub but and I just found it and wanted to say I really enjoyed it. You gave me knew insight to the gap theory which i believe is the correct interpretation of what the bible says. Nowhere does the bible say that the earth is only around 6000 years old neither does it reveal to us just how old it really is.
One thing I do see different though is that I don’t see that verse two begins the six day record of God restoring the earth. Verse two does describe an already created earth in a chaotic state but although God is present in the second verse He has not yet started His restoration of the earth. God begins the restoration in verse three “And God said” this is when God started restoring the earth.
All six days of restoration begin the same way with “And God said”. Interestingly though is that only five days end with “God saw it was good” (of course day six was “very good”). Although on day two, the day the firmament was made by God He never says that “he saw and it was good”. What happened on that day? Why did God not say “it was good”? Why was this day different than the rest? I’m not sure but it does make me want to dig in and study Gods word even more.