28 8 
tion of ver. 1, which includes, as 1 have before remarked, all 
the long geological periods up to the end of the tertiary, ver. 2 
teaches that the earth was reduced to a condition different from 
its previous one, as it is said “ the earth became empty and 
desolate,” — i.e., in a chaotic state, — previous to its being pre- 
pared by its Maker for the use of man. I am aware that some 
interpret these words as our English version reads, “ the earth 
was without form and void,” implying that it means then God 
commenced reducing chaos to a state of order in accordance w T ith 
what geology asserts respecting the first dawn of organized life on 
the face of the globe. But not only are the LXX. and the Vulgate 
versions generally in conformity with the English word “ be- 
came,” in preference to the authorized version “was,” inasmuch 
as the Hebrew verb nvi, ha-y-ah, is twenty times in this 
chapter translated* by the Greek and Latin yivopai and fio, 
and not by ely'i, or sum; but also the teaching of the book, 
“ Zohar,” a work, as I have before remarked, of the highest 
authority with the Jews, distinctly points to the same view. 
Thus, it is written : — “These are the generations of tho-hu which 
are signified in Genesis i. 2. The earth was tlio-hu and bo-hu — 
i.e. empty and desolate ; and they mean that the blessed God 
originally created the worlds and then destroyed them ; and for 
that reason the earth became empty and desolate.”* 
76. I believe, therefore, that the declaration in ver. 2, of the 
earth becoming empty and desolate after having been previously 
filled with organized life, pointedly refers to that last change 
which took place in the physical appearance of our globe, and 
known to geologists under the term, the “ post-tertiary era.” 
During previous ages the atmosphere of our globe must have 
been of a very different temperature from what it is at present, as 
the coal of Baffin's Bay and other places of very high latitudes 
proves that there must have once existed there a different cli- 
mate from what it has now ; though whether of a tropical nature 
* Excerpta from Zohar on Genesis ii., by Ludovicus Capellus, quoted by 
Dr. Baylee ( Transactions of the Victoria Institute, , vol. iii. p. 260). Dr. 
Pye Smith quotes Dr. Dathe of Leipzig, a cautious and judicious critic, as 
rendering the passage in Genesis thus : — “ In the beginning God created the 
heaven and the earth. But afterwards the earth became waste and desolate.” 
(See The Relation between the Holy Scriptures and Geological Sciences, by 
Pye Smith, D.D., fifth edition, p. 249 ; and also the valuable supplementary 
Note B., p. 435.) Dr. Pusey, in the Preface to his Lectures on Daniel the 
Prophet (see pp. xix. lxxxiii. et seq.), appears to adopt the same view, if I 
do not misunderstand him, but he writes, unfortunately, in such a profuse 
and mystified manner, that one is not quite sure what is the exact meaning 
of this learned author. The best work, however, where the subject is exhaus- 
tively discussed, is to be seen in Dr. McCaul’s Essay on the Mosaic Record 
of Creation, in Aids to Faith. 
