Two Translations of Genesis 1:1-2
1:1 THE BEGINNING
Two major and differing translations of Genesis 1:1–2 are believed to be true today. The first reads: “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and empty.” This translation focuses on the state of the earth before God began the creative activity that is recorded in the Genesis account. Those who accept this translation believe that God’s historical involvement with creation began after the earth already existed in a formless and empty state. That is, the earth was formless and empty, and then God began to create. According to this view, Genesis does not address how the earth originally came into existence in its formless and empty state, but what God did with a world already in existence.
The second translation reads: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was empty, a formless mass ….” This traditional translation teaches that God created everything out of nothing. Therefore, his first step was to create the earth, which prior to that time did not exist, and he created it without form and population (empty). God then proceeded to shape and populate the world he had made as witnessed by the Genesis account.
Although the validity of either translation cannot be proven by grammar and syntax alone, the second translation is preferred for several reasons. First of all, a literary comparison of “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (1:1) and “This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth” (2:4a) supports the idea that Genesis 1:1 is the first part of a literary framework within which the creation account is presented. Genesis 2:4a stands as the closing phrase for this literary unit and it refers backward, not forward, ending the account of creation begun at 1:1.
This framework with its beginning and ending statements substantiates the argument for 1:1 (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”) being independent of 1:2 (“The earth was empty, a formless mass”) and standing alone as a comprehensive statement of God’s creative work. Genesis 1:1 is a title that refers to the whole creative process described in Genesis 1:2–2:3. It is not a simple introduction that notes when God began to create. Literary form supports the conclusion that Genesis 1:1 is an independent and general statement of God’s total creative activity from its start to its Sabbath wholeness.
Another argument supporting the second translation points out that the phrase “heavens and the earth,” in 1:1, functions much like the English idioms “A to Z” or “top to bottom.” It is a phrase that covers not only the “heaven” and the “earth,” but everything in between as well. This reveals that God created, that he created in the beginning, and that his creative work involved the heavens, the earth and everything in between.
Hughes, Robert B., and J. Carl Laney. Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001. Print. The Tyndale Reference Library.
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