biblegateway.com
Biblos.com, Free Online Biblical Study Tools
BlueLetterBible.org – An on-line interactive reference library
e-Sword.net – The Sword of the Lord with an Electronic Edge
levendwater.org – Bullinger ’s Companion Bible
Philologos Religious Online Books
SearchGodsWord.org
gladtidingsfellowship.com How to Read the Bible for Understanding and Power
NetHymnal
Amazon.com
ChristianCafe.com
Family Christian StoresCreation, Science, and Genesis 1
Posted By Ken Brown on November 27, 2009
I was at a wedding reception not long ago, seated next to a man I had not previously met. We exchanged the usual small talk. I learned that he was a retired eighth-grade science teacher and so on. The conversation was pleasant enough until he learned that I am a Bible-believing Christian (and as I like to say, “Should there be any other kind?”). He immediately launched into an all-out assault. “How can you possibly believe Genesis?” He went on and on about evolution, endeavoring to make a mockery of God’s Word. It takes hundreds of thousands of years for the light from such and such a star to reach the earth. How could God have created the universe only about six thousand years ago? He referred to the Bible as a practical joke.
The man was well prepared with his long list of scientific reasons why Genesis chapter one could not possibly be true, and he continued for about 20 minutes endeavoring to shame me for being so stupid. The problem he was having, however, (other than being terribly rude at a wedding reception) was that he had never before met anyone who held the position I do regarding the “creation” account. For every objection and piece of scientific evidence he brought up, I was able to give him a simple Biblically correct response that allowed for his “evidence.” He was finally silenced, unable to think of a way to poke a hole in my position.
So what is my position on the age of the earth, the fossil records, evolutionary theory, etc? My position is that it is a bunch of science stuff and I am not a scientist. I don’t actually know for myself how much of what is said about these things is true, but I know that none of it contradicts God’s Word when we properly understand what it says.
Maybe the earth is a million years old or 10 billion. The fact that various numbers are still being proposed tells me that the jury is still out on this, but virtually everyone agrees that it is older than six thousand years. I said “virtually everyone.” We live just a hop and a skip from the “Creation Museum,” displaying men and dinosaurs together.
The problem the Creation Museum people have is that it is documentable from the Scriptures that Adam and Eve lived about six thousand years ago. If they were created on the “sixth day of creation,” then the earth is only about six thousand years old. Since they cannot reasonably deny the prior existence of the wooly mammoth, or whatever, they are forced by what they believe the Bible says, to place the wooly mammoth in a relatively recent time frame. I admire their determination to hold to the Scriptures, but their scholarship is less admirable.
Let’s take a look at what Genesis says.
[KJV] Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
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.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
The Hebrew words translated, “without form and void,” communicate an empty or confused waste. The earth was obviously not completely without form. The face of the waters already existed.
Notice the two uses of the state of being verb, “was” in verse two. The first is in normal type. The second one is in italics. Italics in the King James Version indicate a word or words that was supplied by the translators. There is no Hebrew word for it in the text. The state of being verb is only implied by the rest of the sentence. This is the most common way it was done in Hebrew.
The first “was” is translated from “hayah,” which occurs only 74 times in the Hebrew Old Testament, obviously not the normal way to express the state of being. I am not a Hebrew scholar and I am not going to pretend to be, but there are a few basic things we need to recognize about Hebrew verbs when considering their meaning. “Hayah” occurs in the qal form and the perfect mood (as in verse two above) just 25 times. I used the general word “form” here. Various writers refer to this as a “stem”, “verb pattern” or “conjugation” (not to be confused with what we English speakers think of as conjugating verbs). Hebrew verbs take on different meanings in these different forms. “Hayah” in the qal form does not mean exactly the same as it does in the niphal form or some other form. There are 7 different such forms, or stems, that Hebrew verbs can take. When looking at the other uses of a Hebrew verb to see it in other contexts and get a more clear picture of its meaning, we must recognize that it is only the other uses in the same form that will carry the same meaning. I have read the 25 occurrences of “hayah” in the qal form (and perfect mood). Many of them demand the sense of something becoming rather than just being. Others could allow for either meaning. A relatively small number seem to carry the sense of the state of being verb.
The “Let there be” of “let there be light” in verse 3 is “hayah” and also in the qal form but in the imperfect mood. The action had not yet occurred, but the statement is indicative of an action taken, not just a state of being.
Here is the Strong’s data for “hayah” in Genesis 1:2.
1961 hy”h’ hayah {haw-yaw}
Meaning: 1) to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out 1a) (Qal) 1a1) —– 1a1a) to happen, fall out, occur, take place, come about, come to pass 1a1b) to come about, come to pass 1a2) to come into being, become 1a2a) to arise, appear, come 1a2b) to become 1a2b1) to become 1a2b2) to become like 1a2b3) to be instituted, be established 1a3) to be 1a3a) to exist, be in existence 1a3b) to abide, remain, continue (with word of place or time) 1a3c) to stand, lie, be in, be at, be situated (with word of locality) 1a3d) to accompany, be with 1b) (Niphal) 1b1) to occur, come to pass, be done, be brought about 1b2) to be done, be finished, be gone
Origin: a primitive root [compare 01933]; TWOT – 491; v
Usage: AV – was, come to pass, came, has been, were happened, become, pertained, better for thee; 74
08804 Stem – Qal (See 08851) Mood – Perfect (See 08816) Count – 12562
“Hayah” can in certain contexts indicate mere existence or being, but that is not the usual sense of the word. Another telling piece of information in the Strong’s data above is the mood of “hayah” in Genesis 1:2. It is the perfect mood. This is how the lexicon describes the perfect mood:
08816 Perfect
The Perfect expresses a completed action.
1) In reference to time such an action may be:
1a) one just completed from the standpoint of the present “I have come” to tell you the news
1b) one completed in the more or less distant past in the beginning God “created” “I was (once) young” and “I have (now) grown old” but “I have not seen” a righteous man forsaken
1c) one already completed from the point of view of another past act God saw everything that “he had made”….
The perfect mood indicates a completed ACTION. Just “being” is not an action. “Becoming” is an action.
In light of all this, I submit that a better translation of Genesis 1:1 & 2 is:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth became an empty waste; and darkness upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
How much time was there between God creating the heaven and the earth and when the earth became a wasteland? It can be whatever the scientists want to say. And the record only says here that the earth became a waste, not the whole universe. How long was it between the earth’s destruction and when God put it back together? It could have been a long time. We don’t know. But we know that about six thousand years ago, God, to some degree, started over. I say “to some degree” because God did not have to start completely from nothing. There was already an earth. It had seen massive destruction, but did not cease to exist. It seems that the “face of the waters” was still intact. And there is nothing to indicate that the entire universe had been destroyed.
Another thing to keep in mind as you read through the rest of the record is that it is written from the perspective of what God did to restore the earth. When the record says that God said let there be light and there was light, it does not mean that there was no such thing as light existent anywhere in the universe. There just wasn’t light, or enough of it, on earth.
There were not six days of creation as some people say. “Create” is only used here of what God did in the beginning (could have been billions of years ago) and during the six days when God created animals and people. For every thing else, it says God made whatever, and that’s different. My son and I made a tree house, but we were in no position to create one. Or, the record says God said and it was so. We don’t know how He did that, but it isn’t called creating in the record. Some versions might use the word “create” more frequently in this record, but they shouldn’t. The Hebrew words make a distinction between making and creating. So it was six days of some creation, but mostly putting things back together. And yes, I believe the days were literal 24-hour days. It is hard to read, “And the evening and the morning were the first day,” and think the Author was endeavoring to communicate that what He meant by “day” was an age of hundreds of thousands of years.
I realize that I am not the first to present what some might refer to as, “the gap theory.” I don’t call it that, and I do not necessarily subscribe to everything proponents of what they call “the gap” might present. But translating “hayah” as “became” rather than as “was” seems reasonable enough. As I said before, I am not a Hebrew scholar. I could be wrong, but the evidence sure seems to me to point in the direction of the “became” translation.
Were there people before Adam and Eve? I’ve been told that there is evidence of villages that existed 20,000 or 30,000 years ago. Maybe there were and maybe there weren’t. I am not in the business of analyzing that kind of evidence. Either way, it does nothing to shake my faith. Whoever those creatures were, human or human-like, they died. And God started over with Adam about six thousand years ago.
Is the earth 10 billion years old? Did life forms develop through some evolutionary process? I am not necessarily completely settled on how much of which theories I accept, but I have no problem with people proclaiming them. They do not contradict God’s Word.
I would be happy if people who are more knowledgeable of Hebrew and/or science than I am would jump in and confirm or repudiate what I have written. This would add to the learning process, would it not? (Unless you are just a creep like the guy at the wedding reception who only wanted to intimidate, humiliate, and embarrass his prey. In that case, you don’t need to feel compelled to comment.).
This article is a little different than some others I have submitted. There have been others in which I have asserted absolutely what God’s Word has to say. Here, we are dealing with a translation from Hebrew. This is outside the area of my primary expertise. The “became” translation seems reasonable to me, and it accounts for the scientific evidence. I had intended to include the 25 references where “hayah” occurs in the qal form and the perfect mood. I’m not going to be able to get that done in time for my publishing deadline. Maybe I can get that submitted as an appendix some time this coming week so you can read this portion of the evidence for yourself.
The bottom line is that The Word of God is True. When we correctly understand what it is saying, and we also have true science (though neither always correctly understanding God’s Word nor always having accurate scientific conclusions is a given), then there will be no conflict between the two.
All links to external websites are for reference purposes only and do not necessarily represent the opinions or beliefs of BrownBible.com
We invite you to participate. Please rate this article and/or its comments by clicking on the stars or thumbs. Or better yet, join the conversation by leaving a comment of your own.
Help us get the word out to the rest of the world by sharing this article with your favorite social network. It's easy too! Just click on the icons shown at the end of every article. We recommend sharing with your friends at FaceBook & Twitter. Also, please share with Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us & Propeller.
Related posts
About the author
Being neither a Hebrew scholar nor a scientist, I am not in the least qualified to comment upon the informational aspects of the article. (It does seems well-researched.) Quite honestly, I fall pretty squarely into the group of (probably post-modern) Christians who just don’t care very much about creation. I understand that God’s Word says that He created the world and all that is in it, and for me that is enough. Details for me are uninteresting and irrelevant to my daily life. Is it okay to be a Christian who just doesn’t much care about this? I have seen creationists and evolutionists who get very heated in debating these topics, and I just roll my eyes. Does this demonstrate spiritual immaturity on my part?
Ken, I couldn’t help but comment when you mentioned the creation museum:
Below are a few links to photos and articles about the tracks found in Glen Rose Texas where human and dinosaur tracks were found together. I know many “old earthers” say they simply aren’t even close to looking like human prints, but check out the photos on the first link.
http://75.125.60.6/~creatio1/index.php?Itemid=24&id=48&option=com_content&task=view
http://www.bible.ca/tracks/tracks.htm
http://paleo.cc/paluxy/paluxy.htm
My answer for years has been “God can do whatever he wants, however he wants”. For me to suggest any differently would put limits on a limitless God. I have never understood why someone would want to fight with me over my personal beliefs when I do not want to fight with them over theirs. I don’t claim to understand all the in’s and out’s of God or science. But I had a wonderful geology professor in college who quoted our class the above saying and it has stuck with me ever since. He was a Chrisitian Geologist and had no problem telling anyone about his faith or science. It is interesting to note that he did not work at a Christian college.
I love your respones to someone who just wants to fight. I had a geology professor at a secular college who had the perfect answer for how he could be a geologist and a christian. He said “God can do it however he wants to. He is God. It is not my place to tell Him how to create.” That has been my answer to people who want to pick a fight ever since. I don’t have to argue or explain myself at all. They have no response to that and usually just stop talking altogether. I don’t tell other people what to believe so why should I have to defend myself from someone who thinks they are smarter than me. I don’t care to fight with people and I am not going to.
It’s really hard for a creationist and a scientist to argue. But I think your point is quite interesting, that Genesis left blank a period of time during which what happened isn’t explicitly stated. But I do believe you should look more into geological and anthropological accounts of human existence before six thousand years ago—if the numbering doesn’t work out as you originally thought, it really isn’t a big deal. And keep in mind that “day†(especially counting other languages, like Hebrew) can be taken in many senses – the complete rotation of the earth (that means the earth must already exist!), exactly 24 hours (how do you truly measure time?) or simply a length of time.
As a Bible-believing Christian, I agree with much of what you write. I do not pretend to be a scholar, biblical or Hebrew. But I certainly know what the Lord tells me through the Bible. I believe by faith that the Bible is true. I also believe by faith that God is the Creator of the Earth and everything on the Earth. So if I believe that way, why wouldn’t I be able to believe that God created something on the face of the Earth BEFORE us? God is all powerful and all knowing. He who created man, woman and all animals is not going to be stumped by dinosaurs or wooly mammoths! God’s Word is the answer to any question so those who want to argue should actually read it (& understand it!) before entering into a discussion about it. God loves them too so we must feel compassion and love for them! I pray God bless you all.
I can agree with you that God’s Word is true. I am a Bible-believing Christian and this world would be a lot easier if more people would read and study the Word. Especially if they want to argue about it! I do not agree with arguing because God has given us all we need to know. He created us and our world so how can He possibly be stumped by wooly mammoths? God is all powerful; why wouldn’t He be able to create different versions of life on this Earth? I have a deep faith in God and in His Word; therefore I believe it is true. Wooly mammoths had their time and now we have ours. God’s timing is perfect and all these “arguments” will mean nothing on the day Jesus comes back to take us to our real home with Him. Until that day, I pray God continues to bless you no matter what you believe.
Fantastic! God allows for dinosaurs right there in His Word without contradiction. One less thing to wonder about and one more thing to bolster my confidence in God’s Word. Whenever I see the exactness of God’s Word it builds up my willingness to believe more of it. I really appreciate that my heavenly Father has such a thing for perfection. : )
Thank you Ken.
Hi Amanda,
I just wanted to respond to your statement.
“…this world would be a lot easier if more people would read and study the Word. Especially if they want to argue about it! ”
I think if someone wants to argue about the Word of God they should not study it. That way we who do study it can shut them down quick and feel good doing it. ; ) Like Ken’s wedding example.
I don’t want to be mistaken for the obnoxious wedding attendant, but I have concerns about assuming the Bible is accurate and the science is not. I’m not yet convinced that the Bible is truly God’s word, as it was written by man and has been translated time and time again. And the argument that man may have existed in some form or another before God “started overâ€, seems very convenient and impossible to prove.
zanzibar, I hear time and again the statement that the Bible was translated so many times…making the assumption that things got changed along the line to control people.
They have the dead sea scrolls online now. The translation is the same. The old process of writing bibles was serious. A missed comma and the bible was completely rewritten again.
Dear Ken,
I was surfing the Web for sites that mention the Gap Theory and I came across your article “Creation, Science, and Genesis 1.” I’m not a Hebrew scholar (not even close) but I’ve written a book defending the Gap Theory and I talk about the 25 verses in Genesis (other than Genesis 1:2) where HAYAH is in the Qal Perfect. You may have already posted them, but if you haven’t, I hope this saves you some time. Here they are:
(The verses are from the KJV where HAYAH is translated, “WAS”)
1. Gen 3:1 “Now the serpent WAS more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?â€
2. Gen 3:20 “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she WAS the mother of all living.â€
3. Gen 4:2 “And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain WAS a tiller of the ground.â€
4. Gen 4:20 “And Adah bare Jabal: he WAS the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle.â€
5. Gen 4:21 “And his brother’s name was Jubal: he WAS the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.â€
6. Gen 6:9 “These are the generations of Noah: Noah WAS a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.â€
7. Gen 7:6 “And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters WAS upon the earth.â€
8. Gen 10:9 “He WAS a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.â€
9. Gen 13:6 “And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance WAS great, so that they could not dwell together.â€
10. Gen 15:17 “And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it WAS dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.â€
11. Gen 26:1 “And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that WAS in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.â€
12. Gen 26:28 “And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD WAS with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;â€
13. Gen 29:17 “Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel WAS beautiful and well favoured.â€
14. Gen 30:29 “And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle WAS with me.â€
15. Gen 31:40 “Thus I WAS; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.â€
16. Gen 36:12 “And Timna WAS concubine to Eliphaz Esau’s son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau’s wife.â€
17. Gen 37:2 “These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, WAS feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.â€
18. Gen 38:21 “Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot, that was openly by the way side? And they said, There WAS no harlot in this place.â€
19. Gen 38:22 “And he returned to Judah, and said, I cannot find her; and also the men of the place said, that there WAS no harlot in this place.â€
20. Gen 39:22 “And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he WAS the doer of it.â€
21. Gen 41:13 “And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it WAS; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged.â€
22. Gen 41:53 “And the seven years of plenteousness, that WAS in the land of Egypt, were ended.â€
23. Gen 41:54 “And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there WAS bread.â€
24. Gen 41:56 “And the famine WAS over all the face of the earth: And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.â€
25. Gen 42:5 “And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came: for the famine WAS in the land of Canaan.â€
While the translation is “WAS” in the KJV, the Hebrew mindset was not like that of English speaking people. HAYAH in the Qal perfect indicated a dynamic condition of becoming rather than a static condition of being. Thus, famine CAME in the land of Canaan, the serpent BECAME more subtle, Eve BECAME the mother of all living, it BECAME dark, no harlot CAME to this place, the flood of waters CAME upon the earth, Rachel CAME TO BE beautiful, etc.
A thorough study of the meaning of HAYAH to the ancient Hebrews clearly reveals that they would have believed the earth BECAME without form and void. The Gap Theory is the only creation theory that fits with what Moses was trying to convey.
Thanks for you article.
Your brother in Christ,
Steve Dill