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To the studious reader bent upon determining what the passage says before attempting to determine what it means, it is apparent that Peter is discussing the heavens and earth of Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 2:4-6». Here, as in the Genesis 2:4-6 passage, earth is given special place. The two new things that we are told about its Genesis 1:1 creation are (1) that it subsisted out of Water and through water; and that (2), in due time, it perished by water. The Meaning of These Bible Statements About the Creation While the passages quoted do not exhaust the Scripture mentions of creation, they are highly informative con- , cerning the day that, in the beginning—hence in their having been created—God made the heavens and the earth. The Scripture meaning of creation conveyed to us— with particular reference to heaven and earth—may be stated as follows: God simultaneously created the heavens and the earth at a given point of time, or day, described as “ in the beginning.” With respect to the earth, its plant life was created when it was created. Although the media of soil cultivation were not then present, moisture from the aquatic earth maintained this vegetation. Earth was aquatic in the sense that it subsisted, incident to its creation, out of water—rather than in (in the sense of “under” ) it, and by reason of water: witness the continuously ascending moisture that went up from the earth to-give drink to the soil. In other words, the earth of Genesis 1:1; 2:4-6, and 2 Peter 3:5-6,—if for the moment we follow two of these three passages by concentrating on earth rather than heaven—was a perfect cosmos: it was made, as Isaiah informs us, not a formless waste, but a habitable cosmos ready for occupancy. He says: “ . . . thus says Jehovah, the One creating the heavens, the God who Himself is Former of the earth, and its Maker. He Himself set it up; not formless created He it; He formed it that it might be dwelt in . . . ” (Isa. 45:18). The Death of the First Cosmos Genesis 1:2a tells us: “And the earth became void and without formr and darkness upon the face of the abyss.” In 2 Peter 3:6 we are told: “ . . .by reason of which (waters) the then cosmos, by water having become in undated, perished.” Isaiah, as just cited, declares that the Former and Maker of earth, who Himself set it up, cre ated it not without form. The contextual relationship of Genesis 1:2a to Genesis 1:1, and the same relationship of 2 Peter 3:6 to 2 Peter 3:5, furnish irrefutable.evidence that this void and formlessness, this Stygian black abyss, this death by inundation, are items narrated as parts of a catastrophe that overtook the perfect creation: the creation that God had formed So as to be dwelt in«. Passages cited above 11 furnished direct evidence for the perfection of the heavens and earth of God’s creative act. The Old Testament supplies indirect evidence also. For example, when on the sixth day God created man12, He made him in His own image, after His own likeness: in that sense, perfect. Why should He have made heaven and earth less perfect? Since He is perfect God, how could He have created imperfection? The fact is that He did not create imperfection13. In the work of each of the six days, with the possible exception of but one14, we are told that God saw His work “that it was good.” We read also that “God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good.”13 Genesis 1:2a tells us that the earth of this creation be came a formless waste, an abyss of darkness. Peter tells us—describing the same condition in other words—that
of Isaac (25:19-35:29); of -Esau (36:1-37:1); of Jacob (37:2-50:26). For our bringings-forth the Hebrew original, at the be ginning of each of the tert “bringings-forth” sections, has toledhoth. It is a noun derived from the verb yalcsdh, meaning to bring forth; to bring to birth4. Thus both by origin and usage the sense conveyed by our term is never a summing up of that which precedes, but rather the coming into being of that which has not previously existed. . Our present passage, Genesis 2:4-6, introduces the sec tion of this book devoted to the general bringings-forth of creation (Gen. 2:4-4:26). To serve this purpose it most naturally reviews and embellishes the statement of Genesis 1:1, where the story pf creation is initially told. We read: “ . . . the heavens and the earth in their being cre ated, in the day of Jehovah Elohim’s making of earth and heavens; and every-plant of the field not yet being in the earth, and every herb of the field not yet springing forth. For Jehovah Elohim had not caused rainfall upon the earth, and a. man to cultivate the ' ground there was not. And a mist Went on going up from the earth and caused the Whole face of the ground to be moistened” (Gen. 2:4-6). The phrase “in their being-created” expresses in the Hebrew original5 not an action in process but an action completed. “In the day of” has, therefore, the sense of point of time rather than period of time6. In view of the sense conveyed by toledhoth and behibbar’am1, the time point under discussion is the “in the beginning” of Genesis 1:1. In the present lengthier passage, fuller information is conveyed concerning the creating of the earth. We are told that vegetation—the plant and the herb of the field—was created when earth was created. To attest this creational rather than spontaneous origin of vege tation, we are told that neither rainfall nor farmer was available, but that the soil which nurtured created vege tation was kept moist by a misl that the earth itself exuded*. A New Testament Utterance About the Creation In his second epistle, the Apostle Peter contends with •certain scoffers who assert:,“ : . all .things continue throughout, even as from the beginning of creation” (2 Pet. 3:4). Peter refutes their falsification by declaring their wilfully ignoring “that heavens there were in ancient time, and an earth having subsistence out'of water and by means of water, by the Word of God: by reason of which (waters) the then cosmos, by water (having become) inundated, perished” (2 Pet. 3:5-6). Difficult of meaning, the above translation is exactly what the Greek text declares. Among Rabbinical scholars, Shammai argued that heaven was first created, then earth; Hillel insisted that earth was first created, then heaven! Some modern expositors see in Peter’s “heavens of ancient times” nothing more than Peter’s defense of Shammai’s position! Others insist ' that.the phrase “in ancient times” refers only to the preceding “heavens” and not to the following “an earth.” Still others ascribe to the Greek original for. “subsistence” an idea- other than this inescapable sense and meaning of the original Greek compound. Some forcibly separate the -two inseparable prepositional phrases, maintaining that the first (out of water) means “emerging from water,”, and that the sec ond (by means of water) means "protruding through water.” There is disagreement about* the thought con veyed by the phrase “by reason of which:” “of which” being a. relative plural in the Greek text. As the climax of confusion the passage is “expounded” as the world of Noah’s day, and God’s deluge Judgment upon it.
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