Can anyone explain this theory to me in simple terms? A pastor told me today that Adam and Eve were not the first created humans....I had read something about a time frame between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2.....and of course how Satan fell from earth before Adam and Eve were created, taking the other fallen angels with him.....but none of those fallen angels were human, right?
So who are these "PreAdamites" and what happened to them?
And Cain....why was he worried about being killed, before God put the mark on him, if there were no other people on the earth besides Adam and Eve?
Is there a time frame in between those two verses I mentioned in Genesis?
In considering this question, we must first establish a basis for our consideration. I begin with the fact that the Bible is the word of God. We read 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
If the Bible is indeed inspired by God, then it must of necessity be completely true and accurate in all its details. And if it indeed makes the man of God “perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works,” then it must contain all the information we need for Godly living. So these comments are based on the Bible, and on nothing else.
If the Bible is true, then the present creation on this earth was performed in six days, with a man being created from dust and then afterward a woman being created from a rib of the man on the sixth day. This leaves no room for any theories about human beings of the present variety being on the earth before Adam and Eve were created. If there were any human like creatures on the earth before that time, they most definitely were not ancestors of the present human race.
We first need to consider where the age of “about six thousand years” comes from. If we add up all the time spans specifically stated in the Bible until we come to history recorded elsewhere, we find that Adam was created four thousand years before the birth of our Lord, Jesus the Christ. Since that was about two thousand years ago, we know that the Bible teaches that mankind has been on this earth for about six thousand years. The Bible clearly teaches that man has been here for six thousand years, but what does it say about how long the earth has been here?
The Bible begins with the statement in Genesis 1:1 that "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” This very simple statement needs no explanation. But then we read in Genesis 1:2"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
Many think the first sentence of this second verse is a description of the condition of the earth at the beginning, just after it was first created. But that is an interpretation. God did not tell us this.
One of the most common problems in attempting to understand the Bible is assuming that our interpretation of the meaning of a passage is what God said. But one of the most important principles of interpreting the Bible is that what it does not say is just as important as what it does say. We first need to notice that it does not say that “when the earth was first created it was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” So the text, simply as it stands in out familiar King James Version, allows for a gap between these first two verses. This is called “the gap theory,” and is believed by many. But many others insist that this is trifling with scripture, and that the obvious meaning of the passage is that verse 2 follows immediately upon verse 1.
If we consider only these two verses, we will never be able to resolve this question, for these two verses, taken by themselves, can be legitimately interpreted either way. But we need to notice the Hebrew word translated “was” in the clause “the earth was without form, and void.” This word is הָיָה, or hâyâh, word number 1961 in Strong’s Hebrew dictionary. This Hebrew word occurs well over a thousand times in the Masoretic text, and a full thirty-five times in the creation account alone (the first three chapters of Genesis.) In the King James Version this Hebrew word is often translated was, but in its various forms it is also translated were, wast, become, became, becamest, being, am, been, continued, endure, abode, had, have, hath, seemed, go, went, come, came, follow, and thirty-five other ways. When we see the wide variety of meaning this Hebrew word can have, we realize that we would be on very shaky ground if we were to insist that in a particular place, one of these various meanings is the only possible correct translation of this word.
This Hebrew word הָיָה, or hâyâh sometimes indicates a fixed condition. This can be seen by its use in Genesis 3:1, "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.” But most of the time it indicates a condition that has (or will) come about as the result of a change, as in Genesis 1:3 "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” But more significant to this discussion is the fact that in three cases in this short section alone, the King James translators rendered this word as “became” or “become.” This first of these is Genesis 2:7, "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” The second is Genesis 2:10, "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.” And the third is Genesis 3:22, And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil...” From this we see that the word translated “was” in the clause “the earth was without form, and void,” could legitimately be translated “became,” rather than “was.” if this is what God was saying, the true meaning of Genesis 1:1-2 is that "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth became without form, and void.” If this is what God meant by these words, He was indicating that the earth itself is older that the six thousand year age of the present creation.
We cannot say with certainty that this is what God meant by these words, but neither can we say with certainty that this is not what He meant. The truth is that consideration of this passage, taken by itself, cannot resolve this question. So we now have two points in which this passage, taken by itself, can legitimately be interpreted either with or without a “gap,” that is, a period of time, between the first two verses.
Is it possible that God would speak of such important matters in terms so vague that we cannot positively determine His meaning? If we restrict our study to these two verses alone, such would indeed be the case. But we read in Isaiah 28:9-10, "Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:” So we understand that to resolve this question we need to consider the rest of what the word of God says about His act of creation.
We can begin this by considering Isaiah 45:18, "For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else."
Here we see a clear reference to God’s action in creating the heavens and the earth. But concerning the earth He specifically said that “he created it not in vain.” We need to specifically notice the Hebrew word translated “in vain.” This word is ּוהֹת, or tôhû, word number 8414 in Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary. God did not create the earth tôhû, ּוהֹת.
Why is this important to this discussion? Because this is exactly the same Hebrew word as the one we find in Genesis 1:2, where we read that the earth was tôhû, ּוהֹת.
If we look very closely at this word in these two places, we see that it is not only the same Hebrew word, it is the same form of the same Hebrew word. In Isaiah 45:18 this Hebrew word is translated “in vain.” In Genesis 1:2 it is translated “without form.” But in both cases, the word God used is identical. So we see that Isaiah 45:18 specifically says that God did not create the earth in the condition described in Genesis 1:2.
We now have something positive to go on. We need to remember that the question we are discussing is the age of the earth, or more specifically, whether or not the Bible teaches that the earth is about six thousand years old. We had already learned that the first two verses of the Bible are inconclusive about this question. But now we have also learned that Isaiah 45:18 specifically tells us that the condition described in Genesis 1:2 is not the condition in which God made the earth. Thus we are forced to conclude that there was a previous creation on this earth, and that something happened to it. This requires a period of time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. The “gap” in the “gap theory” is not just something technically allowable, based on the text. It is required, if we accept the rest of the Holy Scriptures at face value. If the Bible is true, mankind has been on this earth for only about six thousand years, but the earth itself is older than that. How much older is not revealed. Why? Because that has nothing to do with God’s relationship with us.
