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scroll' (Isa. 34:4; Rev. 6:14). The present heaven and earth is a temporary
`tabernacle' (Psa. 19:4) in which the God of Creation can dwell as the God of
Redemption. This creation is to be folded up as a garment (Heb. 1:11,12),
the firmament is likened to the curtains of a tabernacle, which will be
`unstitched' at the time of the end (Job 14:12 LXX margin, see also p. 206),
and pass away as a scroll.
The figure is one that appeals to the imagination. A scroll of
parchment stretched out and suddenly released, is a figure employed to
indicate the sudden departure of the `firmament', `the stretched out
heavens'. The word used in Revelation 6:14 is apochorizo, which occurs but
once elsewhere, and that of a departure that followed a violent `paroxysm' or
`contention' (Acts 15:39). Chorizo which forms part of this word means `to
put asunder' (Matt. 19:6); and `separate' (Rom. 8:35).
Isaiah 34:4 which speaks of the heavens being rolled together as a
scroll, and so speaks of the `firmament' of Genesis 1:6, leads on to the
repetition of the condition of Genesis 1:2, for in Isaiah 34:11, as we have
seen, `confusion' is tohu and `emptiness' is bohu, the two words translated
`without form and void'.
The position at which the record of the ages has now reached is as
follows:
¬---------'Heaven Itself' which does not pass away----------®
`Above the heavens'
Gen. 1:1
Rev. 21:1
Heaven
Gap
The Firmament
Gap
New Heaven
and Earth
Stretched out
and Earth
Tohu
Tohu
Bohu
The Ages
Bohu
Gen.
The Pleroma
Isa.
1:2
34:11
Into the gap caused by the overthrow of Genesis 1:2, is placed the
present creation which together with its temporary heaven is to pass away.
This present creation, headed by Adam, constitutes the first of a series of
`fulnesses' that follow a series of `gaps' until we at length arrive at Him,
in Whom `All fulness dwells'. We read in Genesis 1:28, `be fruitful and
multiply and replenish the earth' where the word `replenish' is the verb
male, a word which as a noun is translated `fulness' in such passages as `the
earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof' (Psa. 24:1). The Septuagint
uses the verb pleroo to translate male in Genesis 1:28. We are, therefore,
fully Scriptural when we speak of the six days Creation as a part of the
`Pleroma' or `Fulness'.
(6)
The Testimony of Peter to the Days of Noah
After the great gap formed by the loss of Paradise, the record divides
into two according as the false or the true seed are spoken of, until we come
to the next great crisis, the Deluge. Here history seems to repeat itself.
The deep (Heb. tehom) of Genesis 1:2, is not referred to again until we read
the record of the flood (Gen. 7:11; 8:2). The `dry land' (Heb. yabbashah,
Gen. 1:9,10), which appeared on the third day from beneath the waters, finds
an echo in the `drying up' of the earth after the flood (Heb. yabesh, Gen.