The Lost World of Genesis One by John H. Walton Read Free Book Online

then be found in how creation accounts describe the "before" and
"after" conditions. If the text offered an account of material origins, we
would expect it to begin with no material. If the text offered an account
of functional origins, we would expect it to begin with no functions.
    Genesis 1 offers its starting point in verse 2, where it describes the
earth as tohu and bohu. These terms are translated in a variety ofways in
the most well-known English translations but with little true variation:
    KJV, NASV: Formless and void
    ESV, NKJV: Without form and void
    NIV, NLT: Formless and empty
    NRSV: A formless void
    NJPS: Unformed and void
    Net Bible: Without shape and empty

    Ncv: Empty and had no form
    In contrast, detailed technical studies on the terms point in other directions. For example, David Tsumura, after a full semantic analysis, translates tohu as "unproductive" rather than descriptive of something without
physical form or shape.' As with our previous word study in chapter three,
we must again take a look at the usage of the term to understand its meaning. In this study we must focus our attention on tohu because the second
term, bohu, occurs only three times, and in all three is used in combination
with tohu. The Hebrew word tohu occurs twenty times, as follows:
    Table 2

    Studying this list, one can see nothing in these contexts that
would lead us to believe that tohu has anything to do with material form. The contexts in which they occur and the words and
phrases used in parallel suggest rather that the word describes
that which is nonfunctional, having no purpose and generally unproductive in human terms. Applying it as a descriptive term to
nouns that represent geographical areas, nations, cities, people or
idols all suggest the same conclusion. A word that had to do with
material shape would not serve well in these contexts.
    Why then has the term been so consistently translated as a
reference to the absence of material form? One can only surmise
that the translation tradition has been driven by the predominant
material focus of the cultures that produced the translations. We
must never forget that translation is the most basic act of interpretation. One cannot convey words meaningfully from a source language to a target language without first determining what they
think the text means to say. If the translators were interpreting
the text as an account of material origins, it is no surprise that
tohu was translated in material terms.
    But even the material translation of tohu could not obscure
what is clear in verse 2: here at the beginning of the creation process, there is already material in existence-the waters of the deep.
These primeval cosmic waters are the classic form that nonexistence takes in the functionally oriented ancient world.
    Given the semantic information presented above and the treatment in the technical literature, we propose that tohu and bohu
together convey the idea of nonexistence (in their functional ontology), that is, that the earth is described as not yet functioning
in an ordered system. (Functional) creation has not yet taken place
and therefore there is only (functional) nonexistence.
    With this concept in mind, we return to Job 26:7: "He spreads
out the northern (skies) over empty space (tohu); he suspends the earth over nothing." The word translated "nothing" occurs only
here in the Old Testament but is very important as it is parallel to
tohu in the passage. Technical analysis leads me to the conclusion
that job 26:7 describes the creation of heaven and earth in relation
to the "nonexistent" cosmic waters above and below.2 This provides further evidence that tohu refers to the functionally nonexistent, which it represents geographically in the cosmic waters and
the deserts as is common in the ancient Near Eastern texts. Thus
the adjective tohu could be used to refer

    • to the precosmic condition (the beginning state in Genesis);
    • to the