What Happened Between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2?

Exploring the Gap Theory

You don’t have to believe the Genesis gap theory to find the question fascinating: what happened between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2? Genesis says God created the heavens and the earth, then immediately describes the earth as tohu va-bohu… unformed and empty. Does this simply describe creation before God brought order to it, or could there be more happening between these verses?

In this Tin Foil Talk, I’m exploring Genesis 1:1–2, the meaning of tohu va-bohu, and the possibility of an earlier creation or civilization… not as something the Bible explicitly teaches, but as a question the text makes me curious about.

Today’s Tin Foil Talk:

#TheBible #AncientCivilizations #GapTheory

Okay, hear me out.

I’m not saying I have figured this out. I’m not even saying I believe this. I’m saying he text makes me wonder.

Genesis 1:1 says: God created the heavens and the earth.

Cool. Beginning.

Then verse 2 immediately starts describing the earth as tohu va-bohu”… unformed and empty. Darkness is over the deep waters, and God’s Spirit is hovering over it.

And here’s where my brain goes: Wait… what happened between those two verses?

Because Genesis doesn’t give me a play-by-play.

It doesn’t say, “God created the earth, and then here is everything that happened between that moment and what you’re about to see.”

Now, could that simply mean God created the earth in an unfinished, unformed state and then spent the rest of Genesis 1 ordering and filling it? Absolutely.

Honestly, that’s probably the simplest reading of the passage.

But then I start digging into tohu and bohu.

These words can describe something unformed and empty, but they can also be used elsewhere in Scripture in contexts involving desolation, ruin, and devastation.

And suddenly my conspiracy-loving little brain goes… Ruin of WHAT?

Could Genesis 1:2 simply be describing the earth before God finished forming it? Yep.

Could it leave room for the possibility that something happened between verse 1 and verse 2? Maybe.

I mean… The text doesn’t tell me there was.

And that’s the important part.

I cannot honestly take tohu va-bohu and turn it into “there was an advanced civilization here before it was destroyed.” That’s adding information that Genesis doesn’t give me.

But I also don’t think I have to pretend the question is ridiculous just because I can’t prove it. Because there are still some genuinely interesting things sitting there.

So what exactly is Genesis 1:1–2 trying to show me?

Is it simply: Creation began unformed, and God began shaping it?

Or is verse 2 describing the aftermath of something that happened between the initial creation and the ordering described in the rest of the chapter?

I don’t know.

And here’s where I think Bible study gets really fun. I’m allowed to say “I don’t know.” I can put the question on the shelf without throwing it away.

Because now I have another question: If there was something before the world as we know it… what would we expect to find?

And that’s where we can get into dinosaurs, ancient civilizations, strange archaeological discoveries, the age of the earth, fossils, giants, and all the other rabbit holes that make people either roll their eyes at me or sit down and say, “Okay, wait… tell me more.

But for me, the interesting part isn’t proving a theory.

It’s noticing that Genesis 1:1–2 gives me just enough space to ask the question. And until the text gives me an answer, I’m going to keep the question open. Because sometimes the most interesting part of studying Scripture isn’t the answer you already have…. it’s the question you suddenly realize you’ve never thought to ask.

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— Katie
Word & Weekdays

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