Shabbat shalom, brothers and sisters.
This has got to be the craziest topic I've seen on this forum! It's been very entertaining! I've laughed my head off several times! The only trouble is I worry that some of you may actually be serious!
afaithfulone4u,
You do realize that you are reading an English translation of the real Hebrew Bible, don't you? Don't put too much stock in the English wording! While we may believe that God inspired the Word, He did so in the original languages, and we have no such promise for the translations. Furthermore, Hebrew literature is not so chronological as we Westerners would like. Hebrew literature will list things more by importance than by timing. Also, it is very common in Hebrew literature to report a generalized summary of the details first before actually getting into the specific details.
That's what Genesis (B'resheet) 1:1 is! It's a SUMMARY of what's to follow! There's no "gap" between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2! Sometimes, the trick to understanding the Scriptures is to understand that we may use different English words today than English speaking people used, say, 30 years ago and even more so 400 years ago!
Also, Genesis 2 is an expansion of the sixth day from Genesis 1, as though Genesis 1:24-31, and there is no contradiction between the two chapters. "God," coming from the Hebrew word "Elohiym," is the royal plural for the word meaning "Creator." His NAME is "YHWH," often translated as "LORD" or "the LORD." Sometimes, it is translated as "GOD," and four times it is translated as "Jehovah" in the KJV (Exodus 6:3; Psalm 83:18; Isaiah 12:2; and Isaiah 26:4). Sometimes, people will say the word is pronounced "YaHWeH," and some will write "YeHoWaH," but it should probably be more pronounced as "YaHuWH" or "YaHoWH," that is, as "Yah-HOO," or "Yah-HO," respectively.The only consonant in the Name that is sometimes used as a vowel is the vav, represented as the "W." When it is pointed with a dot in the center of the letter, then it sounds like "OO," as in "moon." When it is pointed with a dot above the letter, then it sounds like a long "O," as in "foe." And, the REAL issue is that the name is no longer pronounced and hasn't been for hundreds of years! The vowel pointing that is put on the letters are those for the word "Adonai," to remind the Jews not to attempt to say the Name but to say "ADONAI," instead. That way, they can't accidentally "take the name of the LORD thy God in vain."
Don't get all worked up about the translation word "replenish." Just because WE think of that word as being "to make full or complete AGAIN," because of the "re-" prefix, that's not how the word was understood in the 1611 KJV! Then, it just meant "to make full or complete." There is NO such word as "plenish" in English; the closest thing they had was "replenish" coming from the Old French word "replenir" which meant "to make replete" or "to fill." Thus, the "re-" is part of the French word, not a prefix! Even more importantly, the Hebrew word that is so translated is "uwmiluw'" which means "and-(you plural)-fill" in Genesis 1:28.
The words "tohuw vaaVohuw" means "they-were-unformed and-they-were-empty." And contrary to what was said earlier, there is NO indication that any sort of destruction produced those effects! Your question was put wrongly: You shouldn't have asked, "Do you believe that God made an imperfect earth in the beginning?" because you have a particular understanding of "imperfect" and "perfect." In their original meanings, one could have answered more easily what you asked, but as you phrased it, you were pushing for a certain conclusion, namely, "of course not!" However, the English word "perfect" has undergone a transformation down through the years, too. Today it means "absolutely flawless," but originally, it meant "mature" or "grown up" or "complete!" Had you asked it that way, you may have understood Trekson's answer better.
"Did God make a mature earth in the beginning?" And, the answer would be "No, He did not." As far as the elements from which the earth was constructed, they WERE "absolutely flawless." HOWEVER, they were not fashioned as they soon would be! God was not FINISHED, yet! There was no self-replicating, detailed organization that we call "life," yet! And, as God created (baaraa') each additional improvement, each improvement was also "absolutely flawless" as far as they could go. But, the whole, intricate, interdependent system wasn't created until the end of the sixth day!
Chapter 2 simply zooms in on the activity of Day 6. For the understanding of what I'm about to say, it is important that you understand the difference between the Hebrew words "baaraa'" (Strong's OT:1254) and "`aasaah" (Strong's OT:6213): The word "baaraa'," spelled "bet-reish-alef," means "to create from nothing." In Genesis 1, it is only used in 3 verses: 1, 21, and in 27 three times. The word "`aasaah," spelled "`ayin-sin-hei," means "to do" or "to make" or "to fashion" implying "to make from existing material." This word was used in Genesis 1 seven times: 7, 11, 12, 16, 25, 26, and 31.
God did both acts: He created things out of nothing, and He also fashioned those things into new things. In Genesis 2, "baaraa'," translated "created," was used only in verses 3 and 4. The word "`aasaah," translated "made," was used in verses 2 (twice), 3, 4, and 18.
Genesis 2:1-6
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
KJV
Neither word is used in the description of the forming of the man's body:
Genesis 2:7
7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
KJV
The word translated as "formed" is "yaatsar," spelled "yod-tsadday-reish," and means "to squeeze into shape" or "to mold," as a potter would do to clay. This again indicates that the material for the man's body was already there. Therefore, what was done to "create" the life in the man was the act of breathing "into his nostrils the breath of life." THAT was the part that God "created."
The name "Adam" is "haAdam" in Hebrew, with the definite article "ha-" added. The word "man" is "adam," spelled "alef-dalet-mem," in Hebrew. The word for "ground" is "adamah" in Hebrew. All of them have the basic definition of "red." Therefore, "adamah" was like the red soil of Georgia from which Adam was formed, and Adam was a redskin. (LOL! I don't know if that last part is true; he may have just had red hair, or it may be talking about the blush of his skin or the redness of his blood through the skin. That's what Strong wrote. The word for blood, by the way is "daam," spelled "dalet-mem." "Edom" by the way, the nickname of Esav or Esau is spelled the same as "Adam," in Hebrew: "alef-dalet-mem." If you'll remember, he was called that because of the "red" pottage - a soup made of vegetables probably with red tomatoes - for which he sold his birthright. And, from the "land of Edom" comes the Greek rendering "Idumaea." Ha! Ha! The "Land of tomato soup!")
Verse 18 begins the "making" of the woman, a human female:
Genesis 2:18-25
18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman (Hebrew: "Ishah," spelled "alef-shin-hei" = "Female," XX), because she was taken out of Man (Hebrew: "Iysh," spelled "alef-yod-shin" = "Male," XY).
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
KJV
A "help meet for him" or a "helper right for him" means that he would have a partner that was just right for him. When God had the Man name all the animals, He was showing him that He had created all the animals "male" and "female." He was also getting him used to giving every created being a name. So, when Adam realized that he didn't have a companion, he would be ready to have one. When he saw her for the first time - a female (XX) clone of himself, a male (XY) - he gave her a name. He didn't rename her "Chavah" ("Eve") until she had given him another life, a son. That was when her name was changed (or added to) as "Chavah," which means "Life!" The reason why "Eve" doesn't sound anything like "Chavah" is because our pronunciation of "Eve" doesn't sound anything like the Greek word "Eve" from which our word came! Those two "e's" in the Greek "Eve" are actually epsilons and are pronounced as a short "e" as in the word "bed." Thus, it should sound like "Eh-veh," which is a closer approximation to "Chavah."
There is nothing in the text that says that God formed the animals AFTER he formed the man. He just BROUGHT them to him for Adam to name them after He had already formed them. In the same way, there is nothing in the text that says that He formed the plant life after He created the man. He just took trees ALREADY IN EXISTENCE and caused them to grow in an orchard (Hebrew: "pardeec" from which comes the Greek word "paradeisos" from which comes the English word "paradise") eastward in Eden!
The only other thing I would mention here is that chapter and verse divisions were not added until the 1700s! So, don't make too much ado about chapter divisions, as in Genesis 1 vs. Genesis 2. They are in the same book, and that means they are not separated from each other at all.
Oh, and all this nonsense about trees representing people is truly laughable!
One of y'all even mixed up two different dreams! One was that of Nebuchadnezzar concerning HIS OWN empire, how that he as its leader was represented by a tree in which the birds of the air could nest and under which the animals would take shelter (Dani'el chapter 4). The other was the image that was struck in the feet with a rock cut out of a mountain without hands that strikes the feet of the image, destroying it, and growing into a MOUNTAIN that fills the earth! This is talking about the future empire of the Messiah (Dani'el chapter 2).
Funny, funny, funny stuff!
