The main sentence actually
consists of verses 1 and 3, while verse 2 is a parenthetical insert. Therefore,
leaving aside verse 2 for the moment, let us discuss verses 1 and 3, which
should read: “In the beginning of Elohim’s organizing of the heavens and the
earth, Elohim said, ‘Let light be,’ and light was [OR: became].”
The first noun rēšīt, is
properly speaking, in the “construct state,” i.e., “beginning of,”
rather than just “beginning.” (The Hebrew vocalization is berēšīt, “in
beginning of” rather than bārēšīt, “in the beginning.”) Its genitive is
here not a noun, but a sentence, “Elohim organized the heavens and the earth.”
Verse 2, as noted above, is a
parenthetical insert. The normal biblical Hebrew sentence has the verb (but not
the participle, often misnamed the “present tense”) preceding its subject. When
the order is reverse, it is for emphasis. Here, the emphasis shows
parenthetical explanation of why God even bothered about organizing the
earth. It reads: “(the earth [then] being [OR: having become] unpopulated [OR:
uninhabited] and unplanted, with darkness on the face of the hydrosphere and
the Spirit of God [OR: a wind from God] hovering [OR: blowing] above [OR: over]
the face of the waters).”
The Hebrew verb “to be” also means
“to become,” and hence one may read “for the earth had become.” The term (here
a pair) tōhū wā-bōhū, generally rendered “without form and void” or
“chaotic,” is really “unpopulated (uninhabited) and unplanted.” The expression
is found in one other place in the Bible (the only other occurrence of the word
bōhū), in Jeremiah 4:23. Here we quote excerpts from Jeremiah 4:32-39:
I behold the earth, and lo, it was
without form and void [OR: uninhabited and desolate]; and the heavens, and they
had no light . . . there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled
. . . and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof
were broken down . . . The whole land shall be desolate . . . The whole city
shall flee . . . every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
The word tōhū is translated
“waste” in Deuteronomy 32:10; often, it is translated as “vain” or “vanity,” or
a “wilderness” (Ps. 107:40; Job 12:24). In Isaiah 24:10, it is translated
“confusion,” though the text would make more sense if it read, “The uninhabited
city is broken down: every home is shut up, that no man may come in.” (Note
also verse 6, “Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell
therein are desolate . . . and few men left.” Also verse 12, “In the city is
left desolation.”)
In Isaiah 34:11, tōhū
occurs twice, in “the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.”
The prophet here has reference to the depopulation of Idumea (vs. 6), of
which he says “from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall
pass through it for ever and ever” (vs. 10; see the entire chapter).
But perhaps the best evidence that
tōhū means “unpopulated” or “uninhabited” in Genesis 1:2 is the Lord’s
own explanation of that passage, found in Isaiah 45:18. “For thus saith the
Lord that create the heavens, God himself that formed the earth and made it; he
hath established it, he created it not in vain [tōhū], he formed it to
be inhabited.”
It is not our intention here to
dwell upon the entire meaning of these verses (e.g., why we translated
“hydrosphere” instead of “deep”). Rather, we hope to show that thee has been a
basic misunderstanding of the entire creation story, based upon the creatio
ex nihilo concept. From our examination of the Hebrew, we may read Genesis
1:1-3 as follows:
In the beginning of Elohim’s
organizing of the heavens and the earth (the earth then being [OR: having become]
uninhabited and desolate, with darkness upon the face of the deep and the
Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters), God said, “Let there be
light,” and there was light.
The text implies that Elohim’s
work with the earth was begun because it was (or had become) unpopulated,
covered with the waters of a flood (note in Moses 2:2 that God says he caused
the darkness to appear). The destroyed earth may have already been millions
or billions of years old when the Gods came down to “reorganize” it. That our
present earth was made of materials already there when the Gods came down is
indicated in Abraham 3:22-24. Moreover, Joseph Smith said: “This earth was
organized or formed out of other planets which were broken up and remodeled and
made into the one on which we live . . . In the translation ‘without form and
void’ it should read, ‘empty and desolate.’ The word ‘created’ should be
‘formed ‘or ‘organized.’” (A compendium of the doctrines of the gospel,
by Franklin D. Richards and James A. Little, p. 287. George Q. Cannon &
Sons Co., Salt Lake City, 1898, 3rd ed.) (in Science and Religion: Toward a
More Useful Dialogue, ed. Wilford M. Hess, Raymond T. Matheny, and Donlu D.
Thayer, 2 vols. [Geneva, Ill.: Paladin House Publishers, 1979], 2:42-43)