The first step to be taken in studying topics concerning which there is testimony from both the Bible and natural science is to determine as accurately as possible the thought that the inspired writers were endeavoring to express by their choice of words in relevant statements. The Bible was written by men who sought by means of the thought forms and vocabulary available to them to convey to their fellow men the thoughts and scenes which had been placed in their minds by the Holy Spirit.'
The word create, which appears throughout the first six chapters of Genesis is translated from the Hebrew bara'. Young's Analytical Concordance' lists 33 cases in which the King James Version translates the active form of bara' as "create," and two cases in which it is translated "make." This concordance cites translation of the passive form of bara' as "be created" in nine instances and "be done" in one instance. It lists two examples for each of the following translations of the intensive form of bara': "choose" (Eze. 21:19), "cut down" (Joshua 17:15, 18), "dispatch" (one example in Eze. 23:47). The Revised Standard Version uses "make" rather than "choose" in Ezekiel 21:19, and "clear ground" or "clear it" rather than "cut down," in Joshua 17:15, 18.
The contexts of Joshua 17:15, 18 and Ezekiel 23:47 properly call for use of the intensive form of the verb bara', but it is appropriate to the majesty, power, and timelessness of God that the intensive form of this verb is not used in the Genesis account of Creation.
Since a cutting operation is generally involved in creative fashioning of raw materials, the basic primitive idea of bare' was probably close to the thought of "to cut" Or "t0 fashion by cutting." This is indicated by its usage in Arabic (a conservative sister language of Hebrew) in which the cognate verb still retains the idea of hewing (wood) or cutting objects out of wood, et cetera. Thus Joshua must have been using the verb in its most basic sense when he instructed the children of Joseph to "cut out" farmland from the wooded areas of their assigned territory. And Moses may not have been using too strong a figure when he wrote that God "cut out" man from the dust of the ground (Gen. 1:27, K.J.V., "created"). Although the same Hebrew verb is used in the two instances, we should note that producing a living adult human being from the elements in soil requires infinitely greater wisdom and skill than is involved in clearing forest land for agricultural purposes, and that while the children of Ephraim and Manasseh were dependent for their creative activity on the prior existence of the forested land of the Perizzites, God is able to call into use previously nonexistent elementary matter.'
The word deep, which appears in the King James Version of Genesis 1:2, comes from the Hebrew teltOm. Young's Analytical Concordance cites translation of this Hebrew word in the King James Version 19 times as "deep," once as "deep place," and 15 as "depth." Significant examples of translation as "deep" are Genesis 1:2; 7:11; 8:2; Job 38:30; Psalms 42:7; 104: 6; Proverbs 8:28; Isaiah 51:10; 63:13. For use of the word depth to convey the meaning of tehOm see Exodus 15:5, 8; Job 28:14; Psalms 78:15; 106:9; 107:26; and Jonah 2:5.
The Septuagint translates tehdm by abussos, a Greek work that is rendered "bottomless pit" in the King James Version of Revelation 20:1, 3. Young's concordance lists abussos as translated five times by "bottomless pit" (Rev. 9:11; 11:7; 17:8; 20:1, 3) and twice by "deep" (Luke 8:31; Rom. 10:7). In this connection the following statement by Ellen G. White is of particular interest:
Concerning the condition of the earth "in the beginning," the Bible record says that it "was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Prophecy teaches that it will be brought back, partially at least, to this condition. Looking forward to the great day of God, the prophet Jeremiah declares: "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly." . . . Here is to be the home of Satan with his evil angels for a thousand years.1
This statement makes it clear that Jeremiah 4:23-27 describes the earth as it will be during the millennium, and also outlines many features of the condition it was in at the beginning of the Genesis Creation week.
It is not always appreciated that the word earth as generally used in the Bible does not have the same meaning it often carries in contemporary usage. In modern usage the term earth commonly refers to the planet we inhabit, and includes everything from the outermost extent of the stratosphere to the center of the planet's core. The linking of the word earth with heaven, and also sea, in such verses as Genesis 1:1; Exodus 20:11; Psalm 146:6; and Revelation 21:1, indicates that Biblical writers frequently used the terms translated by the English word earth to designate only the land portion of the section of our planet, which is classified in modern terminology as the biosphere—the region in which organic life exists. In contemporary scientific terminology the biosphere is divided into lithosphere (earth or land), atmosphere (heaven), and hydrosphere (sea).
Genesis 6:13 and 9:11 significantly use only the term earth in reference to the destruction produced by the Flood. Some changes in the atmosphere and in the water filling the larger basins on the earth's surface may have been associated with the Flood, but it was the pre-Flood land surface that experienced complete destruction. Changes that may have taken place in the atmosphere surrounding the planet and in the water held by the larger basins would probably not have been discernible without refined observations requiring modern instruments, but no one who had seen the surface of the planet before and after the Flood could be in doubt concerning total destruction of the original land surface and all air-breathing creatures whose life was based on dry land (excepting those salvaged with Noah in the ark).
Although this planet will exist in a chaotic state during the millennium as the abode of Satan and his evil angels, there will be no seedtime and harvest in the sense called for by the promise given in Genesis 8:22. Therefore, the term earth as used in this text must refer only to the organization of the land surface, a feature that will be destroyed by the upheavals associated with Christ's second coming.
Thus the weight of textual evidence leads to the conclusion that the first two chapters of Genesis describe the creation of the biosphere on the planet Earth as a home for Adam and Eve and their descendants. The extent to which this work may have involved reorganization of previously created matter in the inner portion of the planet or the production of previously nonexistent foundation material is left to speculation. Such speculation is proper activity for the geochemist and the astrophysicist in so far as the conclusions reached do not contradict the basic revelations that God has given through prophetic ministry. The person who seeks to extend to others the benefits of Bible truth need not fear in dealing with scientifically informed persons as long as he does not endeavor to present as divine truth, speculation that goes beyond the basic teaching of the Bible writers.
REFERENCES
1 2 Peter 1:21. See Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 21, 22; also The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, pp. 945, 946.
2 Robert Young, Analytical Concordance to the Bible (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co.).
3 R. H. Brown, in The Ministry, February, 1958, p. 11.
4 Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 658, 659.
