HARLEY
HITCHCOCK
PO Box 310 Mt Ommaney
Australia 4074
“How
important is the little word ‘and?”
Which of the following accounts is true?
Account 1:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.” (Gen 1:1)
“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.”
(Gen 1:2)
Account 2:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.” (Gen 1:1)
Then satan was given rule and reign on the
earth but he rebelled against God. So God destroyed this original
creation with
a flood. (Gap Theory insert)
“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.”
(Gen 1:2)
Well
I believe the 2nd account is correct and I have Bible verses
and
other evidence to support it!
Let’s
put it this way. A furniture van driver pulls up to
the front door and tries to unload all the items into the house – but
he can’t,
because the front door is locked and there is no way in. So he has to
drive off
even though the furniture he has for delivery is really attractive.
Now
this story has similarities to the Gap Theory, for if
there is no gap, it will be of no consequence as to what evidence there
is, as
there will be no place to insert it. Like the van driver’s situation,
if the
house is locked, there is no place to deposit the furniture.
Now, as to which of the above accounts is
true, centres around the little Hebrew word “waw” - pronounced “vav”.
I don’t understand?
Let’s
start from scratch.
In the
Hebrew language, the conjunction “waw” is a word that can mean “and”,
“but”,
“now” or “then”, and indeed, has a number of other meanings, depending upon the context and the type of “waw” used.
Now
according to Hebrew lexicons, there are around twelve possible ways to
use
“waw”, however broadly speaking there are two broad categories into
which this
word can be placed:
Category 1: The waw disjunctive
Category 2: The waw consecutive
Category 1: The waw disjunctive
The
easiest way to remember what the waw disjunctive does, is that it describes a noun (or a non-verb), and
in this case, it describes the noun “earth”.
In Gen
1:2, we have
1 In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And (waw) the earth was without form,
and
void;…”
The waw
disjunctive here, is a Hebrew literary device used to explain
and elaborate
the previous sentence. In this case, verse 2 is merely describing the
conditions of the earth when it was first created in verse 1.
What’s all this mean then?
Firstly, it’s as
if you can place brackets around verse 2, as the waw disjunctive begins
a parenthesis which is an explanation of the
already complete sentence of verse 1:
“In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Gen 1:1)
(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.)”
(Gen
1:2)
Secondly, verse 2,
simply being a further description and elaboration upon the condition
of the
earth of verse 1, is not a separate
event.
Thirdly, all this
shows that there is no time gap
between Gen 1:1 and 1:2.
So what?
It means
that we can take Ex 20:11 at face value as follows:
“For in six
days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in
them is, and rested
the seventh day: wherefore the LORD
blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” (Ex 20:11)
It says what
it means and means what it says, in that everything was made in six
days, as
set out in Genesis chapter one – from the first word in Gen 1:1 right
through
to the last word of Gen 1:31.
In short,
the use of the waw disjunctive at the start of Gen 1:2 does not
indicate
something following on in a time sequence from Gen 1:1, as this would
have been
indicated by a different Hebrew construction, called the waw consecutive.
Category 2: The waw consecutive
The use of
this literary device indicates that some
actions in a sequence will follow.
The
following would be a practical everyday example by saying “I went to
town and I bought some clothes and I
caught the bus home.” Here are a
series of actions, performed one after each other, over a period of
time.
Now
in the Genesis creation account, we have the waw
consecutive first used at the start of the 3rd verse
as
follows:
2 “….the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters.
3 And
God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” (Gen 1:2b-3).
To
help with understanding, you can put
the phrase “then” in brackets as
follows:
2 “….the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters.
3
And
(then) God said, Let there be light:
and there was light.” (Gen 1:2b-3).
Here
we have God’s action of the
creation of light, coming after the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of
the waters.
It
is to be noted, that the waw consecutive “and” (then)
is used repeatedly in most verses in the Genesis chapter one, and often
used more
than once in many of its verses.
For
example:
It
used twice in v.3:
“And
(then) God said, Let there be light: and
(then) there was light.” (Gen 1:3)
It
is used twice in v.4:
“And (then) God saw the light,
that it was good: and (then)
God
divided the light from the darkness.” (Gen 1:4)
It
is used three times in v.5:
“And (then) God called the
light Day, and (then) the
darkness he called Night. And (then)
the
evening and the morning were the first day.” (Gen 1:5)
It
is used twice in v.6:
“And
(then) God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and (then) let it divide the waters
from the waters.” (Gen 1:6)
Through
Moses, God uses the waw
consecutive, and not the waw disjunctive, to show the sequence of
separate
creation actions that occur over six days.
Do
we need the Hebrew grammar to explain this to us?
No,
we have something better,
and it’s called English, and that means, we can
take comfort from the
fact that it’s the plain reading of God’s words that “… giveth
understanding
unto the simple.” (Ps 119:130).
Just
as God says “I have not spoken in secret
from the
beginning …” (Is 48:16), we can be assured there
are no cryptic
or hidden meanings, as the Gap Theory would have us believe. God’s
word does not say one thing while meaning
something else.
We
have further evidence where
“Jesus
answered him, I spake openly to the
world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither
the Jews
always resort; and in secret have I said
nothing.” (Jn 18:20)
Indeed,
we are not as the
Roman Catholics, Mormons or SDA’s, that would take God’s plain words
and give
them secret meanings.
Conclusion:
“THE
WAW DISJUNCTIVE,
PLACED
AT THE START OF GEN 1:2,
CLEARLY
SHOWS
THAT
A GAP DOES NOT EXIST.”
For
more information on The Gap Theory, you may wish to
get further tracts, and in particular, the one called
“The
Gap Theory and its roots in Freemasonry, Gnosticism and Hindu Cosmic
Cycles”
*******************************************
Australian
Bible Ministries, PO
Box 5058, Mt. Gravatt East, 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com