Terrence L Pounds Study Edition · Developing edition · October 20, 2026
Your Terrence L Pounds Study Edition and commentary remain below. WEB Classic already uses Yahweh. External translations retain their published wording.
Study notes in this chapter (2)
Genesis 1
1 In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth.
Compare KJV wording
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Language note. Elohim is the Hebrew term behind God here. It is a plural-form noun, while the verb bara in this clause is singular. Neither substituting an English title nor displaying a Hebrew headword removes the need to examine grammar and context.
2 And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of Elohim moved upon the face of the waters.
Compare KJV wording
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.
Genesis 1:2 — Formlessness, Emptiness, and Darkness
Language note. The Hebrew phrase tohu va-vohu combines tohu (תֹהוּ, H8414), commonly rendered formlessness, waste, or emptiness according to context, and bohu (בֹהוּ, H922), emptiness or void. Choshekh (חֹשֶׁךְ, H2822) is darkness. Tehom (תְּהוֹם, H8415) identifies the deep. These words describe the condition presented in verse 2; their dictionary meanings do not themselves specify a preceding age or its duration.
The verb hayetah (הָיְתָה) is a form of hayah (H1961), to be or become. The KJV’s was is retained. Translating it as became in this verse is an interpretive choice requiring a contextual and grammatical argument, not a correction compelled by the dictionary entry. The opening conjunction–subject–verb construction is commonly understood as background description rather than a statement that a later catastrophe occurred.
Editor’s interpretation. I believe the interval between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 is when Satan was cast from heaven to earth. In my understanding, the rebellion, his presence on earth, and the darkness described in verse 2 are connected. I am not claiming to know every step of that sequence. He may have exercised dominion here and something went wrong; he may have had dominion from the beginning; or the darkness may have been part of his punishment when he was cast down. Those are possibilities within my understanding, not details I am presenting as settled.
I want the relevant accounts in Enoch, Jubilees, and Jasher brought into this study. I have read and taught those books, and they are part of the foundation from which I understand these questions. I want the passages placed together so readers can examine the connections. This is my interpretation of the interval; Genesis 1:2 itself does not name Satan or describe the entire sequence I am considering.
Passages to compare. Jeremiah 4:23–27 uses tohu va-vohu in a judgment setting. Isaiah 34:11 also brings tohu and bohu into a description of desolation. Isaiah 45:18 uses tohu while affirming that the earth was formed to be inhabited. These parallels are relevant to the editor’s reading. Their use in judgment passages does not by itself establish that Genesis 1:2 describes an earlier judgment; the relationship must be argued from context. Isaiah 45:18 can also be read as describing creation’s intended purpose.
Sources. Hebrew text and morphology: Genesis 1:2; Jeremiah 4:23; Isaiah 34:11; Isaiah 45:18. Compare the NET translators’ note on Genesis 1:2 for the background-clause reading, and hayah H1961 for the verb’s range of meanings.
Heavenly Rebellion and the Watchers
Source priority. Genesis, the prophetic passages, and Enoch lead this study. New Testament parallels appear only where their specific relationship to those passages is identified. They do not supply an independent foundation for this teaching.
Editor’s study connection. I also want these passages examined together: Satan being cast down, the accounts of heavenly rebellion, and the Watchers in Enoch. Enoch is part of my reading and teaching background. Those correlations belong alongside my study of the condition described in Genesis 1:2.
| Passage | What the account says | Connection to examine |
|---|---|---|
| Isaiah 14:4–15 | A taunt directed against the king of Babylon includes a heavenly fall and an attempted ascent above the stars. | Compare the pride and fall imagery, while identifying the passage’s stated royal addressee. Its application to Satan is an additional interpretation. |
| Ezekiel 28:12–19 | A lament over the king of Tyre uses Eden, cherub, corruption, and casting-down imagery. | Compare the imagery of elevated status and judgment; distinguish the stated addressee from an interpretation about a heavenly being. |
| Genesis 6:1–4 | The sons of Elohim take human women; the passage mentions the Nephilim, rendered giants in the KJV. | A principal passage to read alongside Enoch’s expanded Watchers account. Genesis itself does not use the term Watchers here. |
| 1 Enoch 6–11 and 15–16 | Two hundred descend in the days of Jared. The account names Semjaza and Azazel in its rebellion and corruption narrative and describes judgment and the origin of evil spirits from the giants. | Compare descent, forbidden teaching, corruption, and judgment. The account’s named participants and its days-of-Jared setting must remain visible. |
| Jude 6 and 14–15; 2 Peter 2:4–5 | Read only as secondary comparisons: the restrained angels in Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4–5 alongside 1 Enoch 10, and Jude 14–15 alongside 1 Enoch 1:9. | The Enoch passages lead. The New Testament references illustrate specific parallels; they establish no additional event, participant, chronology, or doctrine here. |
Chronology and source note. Enoch 6:6 places the Watchers’ descent in the days of Jared, within the human genealogy after Adam; it therefore cannot simply be placed before Adam or within the proposed Genesis 1 interval. Enoch 6–11 names the participants in its own account. Neither an identification with Satan nor a proposed pre-Adamic chronology is established here by importing a New Testament account. The relationship between the gap theory and these passages remains the editor’s interpretive question, to be examined first through the Hebrew Bible and the additional writings he studies.
Source identification. The Enoch reference above is R. H. Charles’s published translation, reproduced by CCEL, not the Cepher’s wording. The additional Enoch text has not yet been incorporated into this edition. Biblical comparison references link to the identified KJV text or the corresponding passage in this edition.
Replenish and Fill the Earth
Language note. The KJV uses replenish in Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 9:1. Both have umil’u, from male (H4390), meaning and fill. The Hebrew expression does not include a separate word meaning again. Older English replenish could mean fill; its modern association with refilling should not be treated as an additional Hebrew word.
In Genesis 9 the flood narrative supplies the context of repopulation. In Genesis 1:28 the wording alone does not establish a previous human population. This distinction belongs in the gap-theory study because it identifies the wording that prompted the question while keeping the lexical evidence explicit.
Sources: Hebrew Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 9:1; historical English usage of replenish.
Repeated Hebrew wording. Genesis 1:28 and 9:1 both use וּמִלְאוּ (umil’u), “and fill,” from מלא (male, H4390), in the same imperative form. Both also repeat “be fruitful and multiply.” There is no different Hebrew verb here that would justify assigning opposite meanings to the two commands. The shared meaning is fill; the post-flood setting makes Noah’s task a repopulation. The wording itself does not add “again” to Genesis 1:28.
3 And Elohim said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Compare KJV wording
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And Elohim saw the light, that it was good: and Elohim divided the light from the darkness.
Compare KJV wording
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And Elohim called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Compare KJV wording
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 And Elohim said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Compare KJV wording
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And Elohim made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Compare KJV wording
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.
8 And Elohim called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Compare KJV wording
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 And Elohim said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Compare KJV wording
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.
10 And Elohim called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and Elohim saw that it was good.
Compare KJV wording
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11 And Elohim 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.
Compare KJV wording
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.
12 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 Elohim saw that it was good.
Compare KJV wording
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.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Compare KJV wording
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And Elohim made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
Compare KJV wording
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And Elohim set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Compare KJV wording
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and Elohim saw that it was good.
Compare KJV wording
And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20 And Elohim said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Compare KJV wording
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21 And Elohim created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and Elohim saw that it was good.
Compare KJV wording
And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22 And Elohim blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Compare KJV wording
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 And Elohim said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Compare KJV wording
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And Elohim made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and Elohim saw that it was good.
Compare KJV wording
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26 And Elohim said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Compare KJV wording
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Language note. The plural wording let us and our deserves examination in context. The dictionary form Elohim alone does not identify every participant or settle competing theological readings.
27 So Elohim created man in his own image, in the image of Elohim created he him; male and female created he them.
Compare KJV wording
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And Elohim blessed them, and Elohim said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Compare KJV wording
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And Elohim said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Compare KJV wording
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Seed Bearing Plants and the Editor’s View of Cannabis
Editor’s interpretation. I include marijuana among the seed-bearing plants described in Genesis 1:29. The existence of medical marijuana is also part of why I see value in the plant. This belongs in the explanation of what I believe and how I read the provision of plants by the Most High.
Language note. The Hebrew expression esev zorea zera describes a plant or herb bearing seed. The phrase rendered to you it shall be meat in the KJV refers to food, not specifically animal flesh: the underlying expression is le’okhlah, for food. Cannabis is a seed-bearing herbaceous plant, but the verse does not name cannabis individually or specify smoking, extraction, dosage, or every possible use of a plant. The editor’s application to marijuana is identified as his interpretation.
Leaves for healing. Ezekiel 47:12 describes trees beside the river flowing from the sanctuary, with fruit for food and leaves for medicine. The Hebrew li-terufah, from terufah (H8644), means for healing. This is an Old Testament foundation for the editor’s interest in plants as provision with medicinal value. In context it describes the trees of Ezekiel’s river vision; it does not identify those trees as cannabis or establish a particular modern treatment.
Medical context. There is evidence for particular medical uses of cannabinoids, including specific approved medicines. That supports discussion of medicinal usefulness; benefits depend on the condition and preparation and are not interchangeable across all cannabis products. Medical recognition is not itself proof of a theological conclusion, and this study note makes no claim that every use is beneficial.
Sources. Ezekiel 47:12 Hebrew text; Genesis 1:29 Hebrew text; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Cannabis sativa botanical description; National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, Cannabis and Cannabinoids. Medical information is provided as context, not as a personal treatment recommendation.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.