Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth

Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

The first time I saw the word "replenish" in Genesis, I really wondered what this was all about. I thought I was reading about creation, so why did God tell them to "replenish" the earth.

It was not until they explained the GAP theory to me, that I began to understand. God had created all of creation. But then toward the end of the last ice age, He destroyed most of it, or allowed most of it to be destroyed. Then He began all over again. So in a literal sense, Genesis Chapter one talks not about creation, but recreation.

Yet when God recreated the world, He went about it basicly the same way He created it the first time. So there is a lesson in Genesis Chapter one for us about the origional creation also. That is why the GAP theory supports both YEC and OEC theorys of creation. Because Genesis chapter one is talking about both of them at the same time.

Genesis 9:1
And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

Originally Posted by JohnR7

Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

The first time I saw the word "replenish" in Genesis, I really wondered what this was all about. I thought I was reading about creation, so why did God tell them to "replenish" the earth.

It was not until they explained the GAP theory to me, that I began to understand. God had created all of creation. But then toward the end of the last ice age, He destroyed most of it, or allowed most of it to be destroyed. Then He began all over again. So in a literal sense, Genesis Chapter one talks not about creation, but recreation.

Genesis 9:1
And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

You are placing a lot on the translation of one word in the KJV.

If you go back to the Hebrew (remember, the OT was written in Hebrew) and look at the word translated as "replenish" in Gen 1:28, you find that it is "male' ". It is used 15 times in Genesis and only twice is it translated as "replenish". All the other times it is translated as "fill". So, if you use that translation, then Genesis 1:28 is simply "Be fruitful, multiply and FILL the earth". That removes your justification for the Gap Theory right there. http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/...15&version=kjv

Notice that "fill" works just as well in Genesis 9:1. I suspect "replenish" was used by the translators because they took too much account of the context and inserted their own word there. And then, because the phrases are identical, they put the same translation (incorrectly) back at Genesis 1:28.

Of such human foibles are weird theological theories made.

Yes, that is true, the origional language would really not call for the translators to use the word: "replenish". That is what makes it all the more noticable that they choose to use that word.

The question is, how did the Hebrew scholars handle this passage and how did the early church fathers handle it. Does the gap theory really only go back 100 years, or does it go back 3500 years to moses in one form or another.

The problem is, so much of our theology has been lost. If you look at the theology books from 100 years ago, that they use to use, you will see how much deeper of a understanding people use to have of the written word of God.

So the question really is, was there information lost along the way, that we are beginning to rediscover now.

The book of Genesis contains two different accounts for the creation of man. Genesis 1 is one account and Genesis 2-3 is the other and is the older version of the two. The latter does not give the blessing for propagation, rather a curse for male and female to raise children. (Gen 3: 15-19) Adam and Eve did not have children prior to committing the Original Sin. Therefore the blessing given to Noah is different than those given to Adam. I think that too discredits any gap idea.

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Time waits for no one ...

There is really nothing to discredit the gap theory. But I do think there are a lot of people who do not understand it.

When I started to see some of the research and the new information that has come out in the last 10 years, I went to my pastor to ask him if he still supported the gap theory. The answer is, yes he does, so that is the theory we are going with and taking to the world.