A Formless, Functionless World

Scholar John Walton points out that when Genesis 1 calls the world before creation tōhû, it is a modern cultural misunderstanding and mistranslation to think that it is describing the world as “formless,” understanding this to mean “empty” or “nonexistent.” Instead, the better translation of tōhû is “unproductive.”

Indeed, this misunderstanding of the passage leads us to gloss over the point that something exists in Genesis 1, namely “the waters of the deep.” (Note that Walton does accept creation ex nihilo, on the basis of New Testament passages, but does not believe that Genesis 1…