Now the earth was formless and empty

In the beginning. Or maybe shortly after the beginning. Either way, at some point, the earth was formless and empty. What does that mean? Was it the beginning or not? Is there any significance to formless and empty?

Now the earth was formless and empty is article #6 in the series: In The Beginning. Click button to view titles for the entire series

When, exactly, the earth was formless and empty might be an interesting topic.

But, there's something else we need to check out first.

What does formless and empty really mean?

I asked Bing Chat / DALL-E to make me "A fuzzy image of a black orb floating in a black space with no light".

I had to make it fuzzy, because it was formless. And yet, how far from a globe/orb shape could it be and still be called earth?

And there couldn't be any light, because God didn't create the sun yet. Nor did He say, "Let there be light".

That's all well and good. It gave me something along the lines of what that description said. Except, as DALL-E figured out, it can't be totally black, or else there'd be nothing put a pitch black somewhat spherical thing floating out there in that pitch blackness.

There must be some way God knew what was out there. Maybe He can "see" in ways we can't? That seems reasonable. Or maybe there was some kind of "light", but we don't know?

We'll check that out soon.

But first, let's see if there's anything else to the words we read as formless and empty. Well, formless in many of the English translations. Young's literal translation has a different way of expressing it.

1 In the beginning of God’s preparing the heavens and the earth — 2 the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness is on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters. ¹Young, R. (1997). Young’s Literal Translation (Ge 1:1–2). Logos Bible Software.

Different words. We'll see why when we check out the original Hebrew. Then we can address all the other things above.

The earth

Yes, the title is Now the earth was formless and empty.

However, before we do anything else, we must recognize something.

We aren't looking at the universe now. Our attention, and the narrative is now earth focused!

The earth was formless

Let's begin with the word read as formless. The Hebrew word that we read as formless has six possible meanings/uses. In our culture today, we seem to be stuck on the concept of the single best answer, whether it's a question on a test or pretty much anything else. The idea that more than one answer could be right seems to be forgotten.

However, that's the way Jewish people tend to read their scriptures. They don't want to put God in a box by limiting Him to the one possible meaning that they choose as the best, thereby ruling out all the others even though they are valid.

In our modern world though, we seem to love picking one thing, then saying everyone who chose anything else must be wrong! It might make someone feel good about being "right". But how does it help us know our Creator? It doesn't.

To that end, here are all the possible meanings for תֹּהוּ (tō·hû), which we usually read as formless in Genesis 1:2.

9332 תֹּהוּ (tō·hû): n.masc.; ≡ Str 8414; TWOT 2494a—1. LN 80.1–80.4 formlessness, emptiness, i.e., a state of empty space and so nothingness, so not having a shape, implied to be a state prior to order and form (Ge 1:2; Job 26:7; Isa 45:18; Jer 4:23+), see also domain LN 58.14–58.18; 2. LN 1.86–1.87 wasteland, i.e., what is barren and void of use, as tracts of unpopulated land (Dt 32:10; Job 6:18; 12:24; Ps 107:40+); 3. LN 6.96–6.101 idol, i.e., an object which are worshiped, with a special focus on the uselessness and worthlessness of the fashioned object (1Sa 12:21+); 4. LN 20.31–20.60 ruination, destruction, i.e., what has been destroyed and in chaos and confusion (Isa 24:10; 34:11+); 5. LN 65.1–65.16 vanity, nothingness, i.e., what is worthless and lacking in value, implying a very low status in some contexts (Isa 40:17, 23; 41:29; 44:9; 45:19; 49:4+); 6. LN 33.251–33.255 false testimony, i.e., speech which is empty and void of truth, so false in reasoning or facts (Isa 29:21; 59:4+)  ²Swanson, J. (1997). In Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.). Logos Research Systems, Inc.

"Obviously", the best choice is #1, which includes formlessness.

But wait! Is that the best answer because it's correct? Or is it the best answer because we're using circular logic? Here's what I mean. We read formless in our English Bibles. We see formless in the possible meaning of the Hebrew word. Bingo! That's it!

But no! That's not right. It only works because we chose formless to begin with.

Do you remember the word in Young's Literal Translation? It was waste. It wasn't formless. There is a difference. A huge difference.

Think back to the previous segment in this series, Creation from nothing? Earth was formless … You can check it out from the inset box if you'd like to review or read it.

As you can see in the box, there are differences of opinion from Jewish and Christian scholars as to whether God created our universe (not necessarily everything, but specifically our universe) from nothing, or from something that He already created, before what we read in Genesis 1:1.

For some of them, Satan's fall also enters the picture.

They don't even agree on the meaning and/or timing of the first three verses of Genesis.

You might, maybe should, wonder how that can be if the word means formless and nothing else.

However, close examination shows that of the six possible meanings of תֹּהוּ (tō·hû), four of them are possible:

1. formless: pretty obvious for most Christians today, because that's what we read.
2. wasteland: what is barren and void of use, as tracts of unpopulated land
3. ruination, destruction: what has been destroyed and in chaos and confusion
4. vanity, nothingness: what is worthless and lacking in value, implying a very low status in some contexts

The first three make sense. Vanity seems odd, until we read the meaning, and make the connection to nothingness. You may be reminded of some translations of Ecclesiastes, "vanity" in those is from a different Hebrew word.

On the other hand, idol and false testimony make no sense, so they can be safely discarded.

In the end, we're left with four English words: formless, wasteland, destruction, and nothingness that at least have the possibility of being the meaning of the Hebrew word תֹּהוּ (tō·hû) in this context.

The earth was … empty

Let's see the possibilities for the Hebrew word we read as empty, בֹּהוּ (bō·hû) (where "b" is pronounced as "v").

983 בֹּהוּ (bō·hû): n.[masc.]; ≡ Str 922; TWOT 205a—1. LN 14 emptiness, the void, i.e., an emptiness that shows lack of order (Ge 1:2; Jer 4:23+), note: some interp this as a void from a prior creation, see WBC 1:5; 2. LN 14 unit: תֹּהו וְ־ בֹּהוּ (tōhw w- bō·hû) total chaos, i.e., a physical state of total lack of order (Ge 1:2; Jer 4:23+), note: some give the associative meaning of this chaos as a contest of deities, see WBC 1 for discussion; 3. LN 20.31–20.60 unit: אֶבֶן בֹּהוּ (ʾě·ḇěn bō·hû) plumb line of desolation, i.e., a figurative and ironic meaning of destruction (Isa 34:11+), note: the irony is, of course, that a plummet line is normally used for construction not destruction and the chaos that is associated with destruction.  ³Swanson, J. (1997). In Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.). Logos Research Systems, Inc.

Here, there is only one possibility. Emptiness/void, meaning a lack of order. That's as opposed to literal nothingness, which is, literally, nothing. The indication is that something does exist, but it has no order, form, or value. Note, this is the same as nothingness in תֹּהוּ (tō·hû).

What does The earth was formless and empty mean then?

Going back to the previous segment, with the three views of Genesis 1:3, here's how they might view these possibilities.

Initial Chaotic Theory/Original Creation View

This view sees 1:1 as part of the first day of creation. It is viewed as an independent clause or an independent narrative sentence recording the first part of the work of God on the first day.