Biblical Hebrew Forum

[ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben Crick)]

On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 8:55 PM, Richard <aaa AT endlyss.com> wrote:

> Is it possible that the words Tohu and  Bohu in Genesis 1:2 *could* mean
> that the earth was "waste and desolate" meaning that the planet was already
> created but lay waste and desolate (probably covered with water and ice
> with even the sun extinguished) and that God basically remodeled it? ...That
> even the plants and animals already had been previously created and were
> reinstated (with appropriate omissions and changes as needed)?

Dear Richard,

Carefully eyeing George Athas' warning about Theology...

ISTM that the best rendering of ToHuW WaBoHu is "unformed and unfilled".
God created the heavens and the earth; and the earth was "unformed and
unfilled". God created a lump of clay, and set about spinning it on his
potter's wheel. The image of the Potter and Clay is familiar from Isaiah
64:7 and Jeremiah 18:4-6. The Light of His Presence streamed upon it,
illuming the side nearest to Him. Then on Days 2 and 3 He "formed" what
He had created; and began "filling" it up to the end of Day 6.

God then instructed his creatures to be fruitful and multiply to complete
the task of filling the earth (1:22, 28). Creation was His work; Procreation
is our work who inhabit the earth. God did not leave it ToHuW (Isaiah 45:18)
but to be inhabited. God rejoices in the *habitable* parts of His earth, and
His delights are with the sons of men (Proverbs 8:31).

After the devastation of the Flood, the instruction to be fruitful and 
multiply
was reissued (Genesis 8:17; 9:1, 7).

The Gap Theory was suggested by Thomas Chalmers in 1813, taken up by
Pember, and popularised by the Schofield Reference Bible; but there are
insurmountable difficulties grammatical philological and theological which 
we cannot address on this List.

Shalom
Ben
-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA CF  <ben.crick(at)argonet.co.uk>            ZFC Os
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
*Acorn RPC700 Kinetic RO 4.03, 126MB, 4.3GB HD, x32CDROM
*Iyonix RO 5.13, 600MHz processor, 524MB, 114GB HD, 38GB HD, CD-RW,
 Floppy, CF/Microdrive, SM, MS, SD & MMC drives.  *Ethernet networking.