you adhere to the Concordant method of interpretation or whether you feel

obliged to go outside the covers of the Scriptures, and prefer the usage of

pagan Greeks to 'the purposed selectivity' of inspired Prophets and Apostles.

Leaving the usage of katabole, we turn to Genesis 1:2.

The two Hebrew words tohu and bohu occur together in three passages of

the Old Testament.  Those who pay something more than lipservice to the

'concordant method' would feel bound to consider these three passages

together, before coming to any conclusion.  As those who speak of the

'Disruption Fallacy' seem to have either evaded the obligation or forgotten

to set these three passages before their readers, we will do so without more

(Hebrew tohu va bohu).

Genesis 1:2.

Isaiah 34:11.

Jeremiah 4:23.

'And the earth was

'He shall stretch out

'I beheld the earth,

(became) without form,

upon it the line

and, lo, it was

and void; and darkness

of confusion (tohu),

without form, and

was upon the face

and the stones of

void; and the

of the deep'.

emptiness (bohu)'.

heavens, and they

had no light'.

Here are the words, not which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy

Ghost teaches, and these we compare in accord with the example of Paul given

in 1 Corinthians 2:13.

The passage in Genesis does not reveal the purpose with which the

revelation is made.  We do not know whether it was one of the many seismic

upheavals that have left their mark on the strata or whether this upheaval

has a moral or spiritual background.  Quite apart from positive evidence, we

expect in the forefront of a book which deals with Redemption and Purpose,

that this particular seismic disturbance is definitely related to the great

purpose of Redemption.  In this we find ourselves, happily, standing with the

apostle Paul, who, alluding to Genesis 1:2, wrote:

'For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined

in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God

in the face of Jesus Christ' (2 Cor. 4:6).

When we consider the

context of the prophecies of Isaiah 34:11 and

Jeremiah 4:23, we are left

in no possible doubt that the disruption of

Genesis 1:2 must have been

a judgment upon rebellion.  Here are the terms

used by Isaiah chapter 34,

that lead up to tohu and bohu in verse 11

'Indignation, fury, slaughter, dissolved, sword, curse, judgment,

soaked with blood, "For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance",

brimstone, burning pitch, lie waste'.