Biblical Texts to Explore:
Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
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.
Gap Fact Belief Premise:
The Gap Fact believers are taught that the “and” at the beginning of every verse in Genesis chapter 1 is always sequential statement, meaning its something new.
Michael Pearl on “And” in Genesis 1:2
“They disregard all the rules of grammar with their assertion. Note the appearance of the connective word And throughout the first chapter. After verse one it is the first word in every verse with but one exception. It introduces each step forward in the sequence of events. In grammar the And is called a sequencing connective, as it enables the writer to develop a logical sequence of ideas—to show chronological order, as in, “and after that, this happened.” We learned this part of speech in grade school. Hebrew scholars of old assert that the same is true in the Hebrew text. Simply reading the text in any language makes it obvious that verse three follows verse two in a sequence of events. Read the whole chapter right now and note the use of And. Without doubt all sides of the debate would agree that beginning in verse three, And is employed as a sequencing connective, expressing the chronology of events. How then could one suggest that the first two uses are not expressing sequence?”
Michael Pearl – The Gap Fact and Out-of-Whack Creation Scientism – Page 21
Peter Ruckman on “And” in Genesis 1:2
“and not one time in thirty-one verses does it refer to the verse before it.”
Peter Ruckman – Ruckman Reference Bible – Genesis 1:2 Commentary
Brother Jeff Trout Commenting on Peter Ruckman’s Commentary
Listen to Brother Jeff Trout explain where he got his belief in this premise:
Brother Perry Demopoulos’ View on “and”
“The first word in this verse is “And…” This word alone can be proven from scripture that it separates and not only joins one and the same event, but rather separates two different events with a GAP in between those two events.
“A closer look at all the words in the second verse in the entire Bible is rather an enlightening experience. The word “and” is used about 148 times in Genesis 1-2 to
separate the 102 recorded independent acts of God. Verse 2 is as independent of verse 1 as to time and subject matter as all the other separate acts of God.”
Perry Demopoulos – Page 54 – The Gap Fact
While Brother Demopoulos goes into great detail explaining other examples of Gaps in the bible using the word “and” he missed the fact that many times in Genesis 1 it is used as a subordinating conjunction which is a further description as we will show below. I agree with him that the KJV translators were masters at what they did. In the end of this section of this book he also quotes Dr. Ruckman as I have above.
My Response to these Arguments and Premise
And we have many further explanations in Genesis chapter 1. It is not always sequential or a sequencing connector (coordinating conjunction). It also is used as a subordinating conjunction,
A subordinating conjunction is used to introduce a subordinate clause. A subordinate clause gives more information about the main clause.
This is also learned in grade school as well. Let’s break apart the verses and see how they are further describing a previous action. Look at the pattern we see in the first 3 days.
Day | Action/Verb or Further Description | Verse | Comments |
Day 1 | Action/Verb | [Gen 1:1 KJV] In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. | The Action/verb is "created". The Subjects of this action are "heaven" and "earth" |
Further Description | [Gen 1:2a KJV] And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. | There are three further descriptions here: The Earth being still unformed and unfilled, the Heaven is described as physical darkness and the earth at this point is covered in water as represented by the word "deep". There is nothing sequentially new created or made here. | |
Action | [Gen 1:2b KJV] And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. | The Action/verb is "moved" and the subject of this action is "the face of the waters" | |
Action | Gen 1:3 KJV] And God said, Let there be light: and there was light | The action is "Let there be" and the subject is "light" | |
Further Description | [Gen 1:4a KJV] And God saw the light, that [it was] good: | The further description here is that the "light" was "good". There is nothing sequentially new created or made here.There is nothing sequentially new here. | |
Action | [Gen 1:4b KJV] and God divided the light from the darkness. | The action is "divided and subjects are "light and darkness" | |
Further Description | Gen 1:5 KJV] And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. | God is further describing the light and darkness from the previous verse. He gives them formal names; Day and Night. There is nothing sequentially new created or made here. | |
Day 2 | Action | [Gen 1:6 KJV] And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. [Gen 1:7 KJV] And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which [were] under the firmament from the waters which [were] above the firmament: and it was so. | Actions are "let there be, made and divided". The subjects is the firmament and the waters. |
Further Description | [Gen 1:8 KJV] And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. | God is further describing the firmament by giving it a formal name: Heaven. There is nothing sequentially new created or made here. | |
Day 3 | Action | [Gen 1:9 KJV] And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry [land] appear: and it was so. | The Actions are "waters gathered together. |
Further Description | [Gen 1:10a KJV] And God called the dry [land] Earth; [Gen 1:10b KJV] and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that [it was] good. | God is further describing dry land and the gathered together waters by formally naming them. "Earth and Seas" He also says they were good. There is nothing sequentially new created or made here. | |
Action | [Gen 1:11 KJV] And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, [and] the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed [is] in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. | The action is God commanding "Let" the earth bring grass, herbs and fruit. | |
Further Description | [Gen 1:12 KJV] And the earth brought forth grass, [and] herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed [was] in itself, after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good. [Gen 1:13 KJV] And the evening and the morning were the third day. | After the Earth brings forth the things from the verse above, God further describes them as "good". There is nothing sequentially new created or made here. |
“And” in Genesis chapter 1, is a further explanation many times…
Be careful with commentaries written by men
- Col 2:4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
- Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
- Col 2:22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?
Further Addressing Brother Michael Pearl’s Grade School English Lesson
- Brother Pearl asserts that the “and” at the beginning of every verse in Genesis 1 is a sequencing connective. What he really wants to also say is that the “and” in Gen 1:2 is a “coordinating conjunction” which is sequencing. Connectives and Conjunctions are the same thing.
- A coordinating conjunction is used to link two independent clauses.
- In reality we see the word “and” many times in Genesis 1 (including Gen 1:2) is what is called a subordinating conjunction.
- A subordinating conjunction is used to introduce a subordinate clause. A subordinate clause gives more information about the main clause.
- We see above in the table that many times in the first 3 days of creation alone we have many verses that begin with “and” and are clearly subordinating conjunction’s that give more information.
- Example :
- Main clause: Genesis 1:1
- Subordinate clause: Genesis 1:2
English Grade School Reference
Connectives, Conjunctions & Clauses | Definition & Examples (twinkl.com)
Hath God Said,
Did God really use “And” at the beginning of verse that is further describing the subjects in the previous verse?
Yes
Do we see this writing style consistently in Genesis 1
Yes
Is it really important to be a Berean and not believe everything your told without checking it against scripture
Yes
Implication:
We see the explanations listed by the Gap Fact brethren do not match what we actually find when we read and study the scriptures ourselves.
Acts 17:11 KJV – These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
