Desolate & without Life
Since the creation of the universe is finished before the six days of Genesis one ever begin (see my note on Genesis 1:1 entitled the ACTUAL Creation Event), then what is God doing for the six days throughout the rest of the chapter?
Sailhammer says (and I think I agree with him) God is preparing the Promised Land for the inhabitation of the human race. He is preparing the land, not creating the universe.
“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
The phrase ‘Formless and Void’ in Hebrew (our modern translations are all influenced by the Greek concept of this phrase) brings to mind the idea of a desert. In fact, Jewish interpreters around the era 300-200 B.C. rendered the phrase not as “formless and void” but as “desolate without human beings or beasts and void of all cultivation of plants and trees” Basically, the land was unsuitable for human habitation
Sailhammer says (and I think I agree with him) God is preparing the Promised Land for the inhabitation of the human race. He is preparing the land, not creating the universe.
“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
The phrase ‘Formless and Void’ in Hebrew (our modern translations are all influenced by the Greek concept of this phrase) brings to mind the idea of a desert. In fact, Jewish interpreters around the era 300-200 B.C. rendered the phrase not as “formless and void” but as “desolate without human beings or beasts and void of all cultivation of plants and trees” Basically, the land was unsuitable for human habitation
