INTRODUCTION TO THE

PIECE TITLED GENESIS

Abraham son of Ezra, a 12th Century CE exegete, noted that Gen. 12:6 states that “The Canaanites were then in the land.” The word “then” suggests that when the author of this passage wrote, the Canaanites were no longer in the land. In other words, the text must have been written after the time of Moses, because during Moses’ time, the Canaanites were still in the land. A small number of other places that suggest authorship later than Moses were pointed out by a few medieval scholars, but these were not systematized into a thesis which could challenge the dominant view concerning Moses’ authorship of the Torah. – The Jewish Study Bible P.3.

Since pre-Christian times, authorship of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, has been attributed to Moses, an enormously influential Israelite leader from the second millennium BC with an aristocratic Egyptian background. Even though Genesis is technically anonymous, both the First and Final Testaments unanimously recognize Moses as the Torah’s author (Jos. 8:35; 2 Ch. 23:18; Neh. 8:1; Mk. 12:19,26; Lk. 2:22; Rm. 10:5; Heb. 10:28). At the same time, evidence in Genesis suggests that minor editorial changes dating to ancient times have been inserted into the text. Examples include the mention of “Dan” (Gen. 14:4), a city that was not named until the days of the judges (Jdg. 18:29), and the use of a phrase that assumed the existence of Israelite kings (Gen. 36:31). - Introduction to Genesis (Holy Land Illustrated Bible)

The two quotes above reveal that Moses’ authorship of the first five ‘books’ in KJV arrangement of the books of the Bible called “Torah” and “Pentateuch” in Hebrew and Greek respectively, has been queried by some theologians. Due to the fewness of the proofs garnered so far, none has come up boldly to denounce the authorship by Moses. However, Mare Zvi Brettler, a Jewish scholar, stated categorically that “the Torah does not explicitly suggest that it was compiled by Moses himself.”

That the piece titled “Genesis” is a beginning of a history book is clearly shown in chapter 5 verse 1 where it is clearly stated by the writer of the book – “This is the Book of the History of Adam” (WET). Continuing, he divided the history of Adam’s descendants into seven:

1. The history of the sons of Noah (WET) – Gen. 10:1 – 11:9.

2. The history of Shem (WET) – Gen. 11:10 – 11:26.

3. The history of Terah (WET) – Gen. 11:27 – 25:11.

4. The history of Ishmael – Gen. 25:12 – 25:18.

5. The history of Isaac, Abraham’s son – Gen. 25:19 – 35:29.

6. The history of Esau, renowned as Edom – Gen. 36:1-43.

7. The history of Jacob – Gen. 37:1 – Neh. 13:31.

(The Hebrew word, “towldah” in the eight instances is translatable to “history” as the Hebrew word in Neh. 7:5, “yachas,” is translatable to “pedigree” which also means “a person’s ancestral history).

Accordingly, the piece titled “Genesis” contains the account of the origin of the nation of Israel from Adam, the first man created, closing with Jacob their progenitor, his immediate descendants and their descendants in Egypt. In the Wholly English Translation, we have shown with many undisputable proofs, in addition to the few already discovered by few theologians, that the piece is the first volume of a history book compiled by an Israeli historian or a team of Israeli historians, from the northern of the two kingdoms which came out from the original nation of Israel when she ̀was divided during the reign of Rehoboam son of Solomon. Interestingly, the book was given a title by the writer/compiler – “the Book of the History of Adam.” (Gen. 5:1 - WET). Chapter 1 to 4 serves as the prologue. The 15-volume book is called in the Final Testament, “Moses,” “the Book of the Law” or “the Book of Moses,” being a contracted form of the Book Containing the Law of Moses, just like the Bible is called the Word of God today in that it contains the words of God, though it contains the words of men as well - words of Adam, Eve, Cain, Lamech, Ahimelech, Abraham, Pharoah, Isaac, Jacob, etc. - and the same way those who canonized the books of the Bible titled the book containing the activities of Joshua “The Book of Joshua,” the book containing the story of judges “The Book of Judges,” the book containing the story of Ruth “The Book of Ruth,” the book containing the story of Samuel “The Book of Samuel” and the book containing the story of Jonah “The Book of Jonah,” though the books were not written by the characters themselves.

The other volumes making up the history are the ‘books’ titled, “Exodus,” “Leviticus,” “Numbers,” “Deuteronomy,” “Joshua,” “Judges,” “Ruth,” “I Samuel,” “II Samuel,” “I Kings,” “II Kings,” “Jonah,” “Esther” and “Nehemiah.” It was coordinated by Nehemiah! (Please read Introduction to WET). An undisputable proof that the piece titled Genesis was written after the exile is the presence of Aramaic in Genesis 31:47. Aramaic is thought to have first appeared among the Aramaeans in the 11th Century B.C. It was in the 7th and 6th Century B.C. that it became the lingua franca of the Middle East, and later, it became the official language of the Achaemenian Persian dynasty (559-333BC). Since Moses lived between 1530 and 1410 B.C., he could not have written the volume. That the writer incorporated the Law into it is evident in the superscription at the beginning of Deuteronomy (Deut. 1:1-5): These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red Sea, between Paran and Tophel and Leban and Hazeroth and Dizahab, eleven days’ journey to Kadesh-barnea from Horeb by the way of the country of Seir. On the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, after he killed Sihon king of the Amorites who dwelt in Heshbon and Og king of Bashan who dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei, on this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, all that the LORD instructed him – as Ezra incorporated the writings of the prophets into his with superscriptions. Accordingly, while that of Ezra was called “the Prophets” or “the Book of the Prophets” in the Final Testament days, this was called “the Law,” “Moses,” “the Law of Moses” or “the Book of the Law,” being abridged forms of the Book Containing the Writings of the Prophets and the Book Containing the Law respectively. As that of Ezra was called “the Prophets” or “the Book of the Prophets” in the Final Testament because of the writings of the prophets he incorporated into it, this was called “the Law,” “the Book of Moses” or “the Book of the Law” because of the law he incorporated into it. Both writers used superscriptions to introduce the incorporated writings into their works.

THE BOOK OF THE LAW

As far as the Bible is concerned, the “Book of the Covenant,” “Book of the Law,” or “Book of the Law of Moses,” was written and read out by Moses before Israel left the wilderness by Sinai for Kibrothhataavah (Exod. 24:7; Num. 33:15 & 16). It was not only read out there, thirty-eight years after, Moses held it up in his hands and expatiated on it in his farewell message to the people, pointing them to it nine times (Deut. 17:18; 28:58 & 61; 29: 20, 21 & 27; 30:10; 31:24 & 26), one of which times he commanded that it be kept beside the ark they had constructed for the two tablets containing the ten commandments (Deut. 31:25-26) before he was called up to the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Mount Pisgah, opposite Jericho, and died there (Deut. 34). The book is what people, beginning from Joshua downward, made reference to as the “Book of the Law of Moses” (Josh. 8:31; 23:6; 2 Kgs. 14:6; Neh. 8:1), “Book of the Law of God” (Josh. 24:26), “Book of the Law” (2 Kgs. 22:8), “Book of the Law of the Self-existent” (2 Chr. 17:9; Neh. 9:3), “Book of Moses” (2 Chr. 25:4) or “Book of the Law of the Self-existent by Moses” (2 Chr. 34:14). It, definitely, runs contrary to reasoning to assume that the same book that makes us to know that Moses wrote a book, read it at the wilderness by Sinai, told the people to keep the book in the ark 38 years after, and reports the death of Moses, was written by Moses. The notion that Moses wrote the first five volumes of the KJV arrangement of the Bible, therefore, needs to be thoroughly reexamined. Also, as far as Jesus, our Sovereign Master and His first followers knew, the books making up the First Testament (generally called Old Testament) are three – “the Book of the Prophets,” “the Book of the Law” and “the Book of Psalms” - Matt. 11:13; Luke 24:44. It is, then, necessary for the church to sit down and look closely at the current grouping for the possibility of a rearrangement.

Evidence of Time of Writing:

In addition to the above, the following are few of over 1,000 other proofs in the first five ‘books’ of the Bible that Genesis was written after Israel had possessed the land:

1) Gen. 2:4 (KJV): LORD (that is, the Self-existent), in this verse, and many other passages in Genesis, is a proof that the book was written in the land of Canaan. According to Exodus 6:3, the name was given to Moses in the wilderness; if Moses wrote the book, he would not write the Self-existent for events that had taken place thousands of years before the time, especially in sentences attributed to men who lived before Moses got the identifier – Noah (Gen. 9:26) Abraham (Gen. 14:22 and 24; 24:3 and 7), Sarah (Gen. 16:2 and 5), Eliezer (Gen. 24:12-56), Laban (Gen. 24:50), Isaac (Gen. 26:22; 27:7 and 27) Ahimelech (Gen. 26:28-29), Jacob (Gen. 27:20, 28:16 and 21; 30:30 and 49:18), Leah (29:32-35 and 30:24), and Moses (Exod. 3:18, 4:1 and 20, 5:2). Moses could never have written that all these people called the identifier he was given in Egypt about the time they were to leave Egypt. Only a historian could do that. It can be seen that the historian tried not to write “the Self-existent” in some cases (e.g., Gen. 15:2; 18:27-32) but as a human being, he could not do it perfectly.

2) Gen. 5:1 (KJV): This is the Book of the History of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. The Hebrew word “Cepher” here may also mean “bill,” “evidence,” “letter, “Register” or “scroll.” The most appropriate is “book,” seeing that it is of the generations (or race) of Adam. The “book” is not only what we have in the fifth chapter of the current book titled “Genesis.” As it is evident, the book begins with the chapter, but it does not end there, seeing that chapter six is a continuation of Adam’s generations or race. Where, then, does the book end? Considering the unbroken continuity of the narrative from Genesis to Exodus; Exodus to Leviticus; Leviticus to Numbers; Numbers to Deuteronomy; Deuteronomy to Joshua; Joshua to Judges, Judges to Ruth; Ruth to 1 Samuel; 1 Samuel to 2 Samuel; 2 Samuel to 1 Kings; and 1 Kings to 2 Kings, there is no doubt that one hand was responsible for the first twelve books. The question now is, ‘Where does the book continue or end, as, to be a book, a write-up must have a beginning and an end?’ Chronologically, the book of Jonah (the book of Jonah is an historical narrative, not prophecy) — being the account of what Jonah did when he was sent by God to preach to the people of Nineveh, the oppressors of Israel, the northern kingdom, and the world rulers who had deported the people of the northern kingdom, Israel, and Jonah himself being a citizen of the northern kingdom, Israel — follows the book of 2 Kings. The narrative progresses in the piece titled Esther being an account of the divine benevolence of the Self-existent to the people in the foreign land after the deportation, and was neatly rounded off in Nehemiah chapter 13, making Nehemiah the chief editor or coordinator. To break this fifteen-volume, systematically written and neatly packaged, book that shows unbroken continuity, into pieces and call a part Torah just because the Final Testament refers to the entire book as the Law, the Book of the Law or the Law of Moses, is wrong; the terms are merely abridged forms of the Book Containing the Law of Moses.

3) Genesis 8:20 (KJV): And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Just as sin offering was not known during Abel’s days, burnt offering was not known during Noah’s time; both, according to the book itself, were introduced in the wilderness – Leviticus 1-5. Only a historian, writing after its introduction would write such. Moses whom the same book reports to have received the details of the offerings first-hand would not write that people who lived long before that time offered it. To offer burnt offering means that the individual is aware of different types of offerings but chooses to offer one of them. If the different types of offerings – sin, burnt, grain and peace (thanks) had existed before Israel got to the wilderness, God would not need to be outlining it for them in the wilderness.

4) Genesis 13:18 (KJV) – Mamre, which is in Hebron. Hebron is the name the Israelites gave to the city formerly ruled by Arba, which used to be Mamre, when they took possession of the land. See Gen. 23:2 and 19; 35:27; Josh. 14:15; 15:13 and 54; 20:7; 21:11; Jdg. 1:10. The place was named after one of their ancestors, Hebron son of Kohath (Exodus 6:18; Numbers 3:19 and 27), a descendant of Levi who was brought to Egypt as a young boy (Gen. 46). Nehemiah used the current name of the place to tell the movement of Abraham when the place was still Mamre. Hebron is still in Israel as I am writing!

5) Genesis 14:14 (KJV): And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. Dan is no other place than the territory which used to be “Laish” captured by the tribe of Dan in the land of Canaan and changed to “Dan” – Jdg. 18:26-29. As the writer wrote that the Self-existent showed Moses all Gilead unto Dan in Deuteronomy 34:1, when they had not got to the land, he wrote here the location that Abram got to in his pursuit of the kings, when Dan himself was not yet born. He reported past events using the current names of the places. To do that, all it takes is “research,” and we will see as we proceed that, though anointed and filled with the holy spirit (breath of the Self-existent, the Holy Spirit), the writers did a lot of research.

6) Genesis 14:18 (KJV) – And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: And he was the priest of the “most high” God. There was no nation, kingdom or city, called Salem during the days of Abraham. David changed Jebus to Salem when he conquered it (1 Chr. 11:4-8), so Genesis could not have been written before the change. It was when the sanctuary was built in the city of the Peaceful [the Self-existent, the Holy Spirit] - Jerusalem - and the Glory of the Self-existent - the Self-existent [the Holy Spirit] - came in (2 Chr. 7:2) that He became the King of (Jeru)Salem (Ps. 76:2). Before then He was the King of Shiloh – Ps. 76:60; Jer. 7:12-14; 26:6 – when His tent of worship (His palace) was there. It was when the ark was moved to the city of the Peaceful [the Self-existent, the Holy Spirit] - Jerusalem - upon the completion of the house of worship (His new palace) there by Solomon that He moved there (1 Kgs 8 and 9; 2 Chr. 6 & 7) and became King of Salem (Ps. 48:1-2; 76:1-2). Research from now to eternity will not produce any king of Salem other than the Self-existent [the Holy Spirit] the God of Israel!

7) Genesis 31:21; Genesis 37:25 (KJV) - So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the river, and set his face toward the mount Gilead. ….. And they sat down to eat bread: And they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. - The place, “Gilead,” recorded that the Ishmeelites came from, here, is the territory east of the Jordan River which the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh chose to settle in before Israel got to the promised land. Numbers 31 and 32 help us to know that the whole territory used to be the kingdoms of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and of Og, king of Bashan, and that the Reubenites, the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh rebuilt it after Israel had conquered it, changing the names (Num. 32:28). If the account in Numbers 32:40 added that “Moses gave Gilead unto Machir, the son of Manasseh,” and we are made to know in Numbers 26:29 that “Gilead” was the son of Machir, it is logical to conclude that the name that the place was changed to after the place was captured was what the writer used to describe the place, especially that the place was called “Gilead” up to the return from captivity of the people of Judah (Zech. 10:10). Or, do we say that a descendant of Jacob later called his son by the name of a city in the land? To find the name in Genesis 31 when Gilead was still in Jacob’s womb, shows that the “book,” from Genesis to Deuteronomy, was written in the land of Canaan after Israel conquered the land. To now realize that the conquest of the territory took place in the fortieth year of Israel in the wilderness after Aaron had died, in the fifth month of the fortieth year, and after they had mourned him for thirty days (Num. 33:38-39; 20:29), makes it clear that the writer wrote it after they possessed the land.

After Aaron’s death, they spent only six months in the wilderness, during which time they journeyed and camped in eight locations (Num. 33:41-49), after which they took a census and later fought the Midianites (Num. 31). There was no time for anyone to build a city within that period, apart from the fact that a city cannot be built in six months and get the name changed. The name was initially given to the territory by the people in the eastern part of the Jordan but after the division of the kingdom during the reign of Rehoboam son of Solomon, it became one of the names the people of Judah the southern kingdom, the Jews, called the northern kingdom. Other names they called the northern kingdom include Ephraim, Naphtali, Joseph or Isaac.

That Moses wrote a book cannot be contended or denied (Exod. 17:14l; Deut. 32:33; Deut. 31:24; Josh. 8:31; 2 Kings 14:6; 2 Chr. 25:4; 34:14; 35:12; Ezra 6:18; Nah. 8:1; 13:1; Mark. 12:26; Heb. 9:19), but to say that the five books presently called “the Torah” or “the Pentateuch” where Moses appears in reported speech five hundred and eighty-three times was written by Moses is beyond any human reasoning - logic.

Evidence of Historicity:

That the volume begins with the creation of the first man, Adam, and progresses with his descendants, rules out, entirely, its being a law; it gave it out as a history. In fact, the first four chapters is an introduction to the book: The history proper begins in Genesis 5:1 with the book title – THE BOOK OF THE HISTORY OF ADAM. It, therefore, serves, not only as the history of a nation, but of human race. In fact, seeing that the Hebrew word, “adam,” means “man,” it is even better called the BOOK OF THE HISTORY OF MAN.

That there was nothing called the five books ascribed to Moses, called Torah, is evident in Ps. 44:1-3 and 78:3:

We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them. Ps. 44:1-3 (KJV).

Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. Ps. 78:3 (KJV).

The psalmists made us know that all that happened from Egypt to the land of Canaan were passed down to them orally. If there was anything called Torah, he would have written, “We have read in the Book of Moses…”

8) Gen. 12:6 and 13:7 – “The Canaanites were then in the land” (Gen. 12:6) and “the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwelled then in the land” (Gen. 13:7) mean that they had been displaced when the book was written. This is a clear proof that Moses did not write the book, in that the Canaanites and the Perizzites succeeded Moses – they were still in the land after Moses’ demise. They were displaced by Joshua.

9) Finally, the names of these territories found in the first five books in KJV arrangement of the books of the Bible (Genesis to Deuteronomy), is a proof that the books were written after Moses’ death, in that Israel gave the names when she took possession of the land.

That the Final Testament reveals three scriptures – the Book of Moses or of the Law, the Book of the Prophets and the Psalms (Luke 24:44) – makes it clear that there were only three books in the First Testament. That being so, the 39 books of the First Testament must be grouped to three. If “the Psalms” is taken out as one, each of the remaining 38 books must fit into either of the two remaining books – the Law of Moses or the Prophets. There is no way this can be achieved until one realizes that the title, ‘the Law’ or ‘the Book of Moses’ is abridged form of the ‘Book Containing the Law’ or ‘the Book Containing the Writings of Moses’ and the title, ‘the Prophets’ or ‘the Book of the Prophets’ (Acts 7:42) is an abridged form of ‘the Book Containing the Writings of the Prophets.’ Having taken 23 of the remaining 38 books out as the Book Containing the Writings of the Prophets and seeing that, like 1 Chronicles, Genesis begins with Adam, the only conclusion one can arrive at is that Genesis is the beginning of another historical narrative.

It is either a believer takes what God says as authentic or what the fathers of faith saw: Everything in Genesis to Deuteronomy shows that Nehemiah and a team wrote the book and incorporated the Law of Moses they had committed to memory and on research, having read the book by Ezra. The fifteen volumes are therefore best accepted as history as the writers themselves called it - Gen. 2:4; 5:1 (WET) — and being written by human being, it could contain some human errors. To take the human writers as infallible is to deify man! No matter the level of man’s spirituality, he remains fallible. As for me, that it is a history does not stop it from being the Word of God in that it contains the words of God, neither does it reduce its efficacy or potency. Not all the sixty-six books so far regarded as the Word of God contain only words spoken by God; some contain words spoken by men, even by wicked men. We call the Bible the Word of God because it contains the words spoken by God as we call the books of the Bible after some individuals though not everything in them was spoken by the individual. (For example, the Book of Prophet Isaiah contains the threat issued against Judah by the king of Assyria). Interestingly, the writers of the literary piece themselves called the book “history.” (Knowing that the heaven and the earth do not have generations, the best translation for Gen. 2:4 is “These are the histories of the sky and the ground as to the time they were created - the day the Self-existent [the Holy Spirit] made the ground and the sky.”)

That the two books – by Ezra and Nehemiah – are history books does not by any means desecrate the books. The two histories reveal the Self-existent, not only to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but to the whole world; they make us see His holiness, power and love, revealing Him as the Creator, the Self-existent and the God of the whole earth! No other way of knowing Him other than from these two books that both Israel and the world have been blessed with.

THE BIBLE, GOD AND CREATION

To begin the prologue to the book, Nehemiah introduced readers to God as the Creator of the sky and the ground. (Please note that not heaven and earth were created; sky and the ground were. Heaven remains the abode of God: The Bible does not tell us how that came about and it will be foolhardy for us to want to know - how that came about is not our business.)

What follows is that the earth became “without form and void”; and darkness came upon the deep. As a result, the Spirit of God (Not the God said to be the Creator in the beginning.) moved upon the waters. The Spirit of God, according to the account, is a separate entity from God, the one revealed as the Creator of the sky and the ground in the beginning or the original sky and ground.

From the account in Genesis 1 verses 1 and 2, it can be deduced that the Spirit of God began to reside on earth after the original sky and ground were created, and that, because the earth became “without form and void” and darkness came upon the deep, He was left with no alternative than to be moving upon the waters. Unfortunately, the account does not reveal when and how the waters came about either. That leaves man with only one conclusion – that the waters flooded the then earth and so it became “without form and void.”

Accordingly, the account in Genesis reveals that there was a sky and a ground before the six-day work recorded in Genesis 1:3-31. That God later said in Gen. 9:11 that He would not cut off man anymore by the waters of a flood supports the conclusion that the original sky and ground were marred by flood, leaving the Spirit of God (the Self-existent, the Holy Spirit) with no option than to move upon the face of the deep. Had He not done so, at least once, before that of the time of Noah, He would not say that. Jeremiah 4:23 also shows that the earth was not originally without form and void, it became without form and void: I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light - KJV. Taking the declaration on its face value also means that there were men in the first world and that they were destroyed by the earlier flood, supporting the discovered fossils dating as far as 3.5 billion years.

THE CREATOR OF THE ORIGINAL SKY AND GROUND - THE EARTH

Not much is found in the Bible about the original work of creation apart from in Proverbs 8: Wisdom, the Self-existent [the Holy Spirit] declares that He was with the Creator of the original earth before the earth was:

The Self-existent had Me with Him from the beginning, way back before His works of long ago. 23I was anointed from ancient time, from the beginning, or ever before the earth came to be. 24I was brought forth when there were no watery depths, and no springs filled with water. 25Before the mountains and the hills were drowned, I was brought forth, 26when He [the Self-existent] had not yet made the earth, the fields or the first soil of the world. 27I was there when He [the Self-existent] fixed the heaven, laid out the horizon on the surface of the ocean and 28placed the skies above; when the foundations of the ocean gushed out; 29when He [the Self-existent] set a limit for the sea so that the waters would not violate His command and when He [the Self-existent] laid out the foundations of the earth. 30I was beside Him [the Self-existent] then as one brought up [trained] by Him. I was His delight every day, always rejoicing before Him. 31I was rejoicing in the habitable part of the world, in that My delight was in the sons of men.

- Proverbs 8:22-31 (WET).

If He was by Him before the earth was, when there were no depths, fountains, mountains, hills; when He had not made the earth, the fields or the first soil (ground) of the world; when He prepared the sky, set compass upon the face of the depth; established the clouds above and strengthened the fountains of the deep; when He gave the sea His decree that waters should not go beyond the boundary He set for it and fixed the foundations of the earth – it means He was only a Spectator or Witness; He was not the Creator of the original earth. Yet the Bible declares emphatically, in many passages, that the Spirit of God is a Creator – Exod. 4:11; Job 33:4; Ps. 104:30; 148:5.

That where He came in was when the earth originally created became without form and void is revealed in Ps. 104:30:

Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created: And thou renewest the face of the earth.

And that He was delegated by the Self-existent to do so is revealed in Ps. 148:5-6:

Let these praise the Name [Emissary] of the Self-existent - the Self-existent [the Holy Spirit] - for He [the Self-existent] commanded Him and He created them.

He [the Self-existent - the Holy Spirit] set them in their position forever and ever; He gave an order that will never expire. WET

(The Name of the Self-existent is the same as the Spirit or Emissary of the Self-existent.)

It is then clear that “Let there be …” and “Let the …” in Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20 & 24 were orders to the Spirit of God — the Self-existent, the Holy Spirit — to bring about those things.

Therefore, according to the testimony of the scriptures,

a) God [the Self-existent] created the original earth (the sky and the ground – Gen. 1:1; Mark 13:19; Eph. 3:9; 1 Tim. 4:3; Rev. 4:3 and 10:6) perhaps, through God the Son, in a dateless past while the Self-existent, the Holy Spirit – Wisdom – stood by Him, watching (Prov. 8:22-31).

b) The earth – the sky and the ground – He created was not without form or empty, something happened to it for it to become without form and void - Is. 45:18:

This is what the Self-existent – God, the Creator of the sky, the very God who formed the earth and made it: He established it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited – says: “I am the Self-existent, there is no other. (WET)

(The same Hebrew word, “tôhûw” in Gen. 1:2 was translated to “vain.”) That He created it to be inhabited means there were inhabitants in the original earth and that they were destroyed along with the earth then.

c) The Self-existent, the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of God – Wisdom – chose to stay on earth after the creation - Prov. 8:31:

Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.

d) God destroyed the original earth by flood so, the earth became without form and void - Gen. 1:2; Jer. 4:23:

And the earth [became] 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 (Gen. 1:2).

I beheld the earth, and, lo, it [became] without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light (Jer. 4:23).

a) After the destruction of the earth with flood, the Self-existent, the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of God - was left with no option than to move upon the flood – Gen. 1:2:

………. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

b) God ordered the Spirit of God - the Self-existent, the Holy Spirit - to renew or rebuild the earth – Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24 and 26; Ps. 104:30; 148:5-6 (WET):

Let these praise the Name [Emissary] of the Self-existent - the Self-existent [the Holy Spirit] - for He [the Self-existent] commanded and they were created.

6 He [the Self-existent - the Holy Spirit] set them in their position forever and ever; He gave an order that will never expire.

(The Name of the Self-existent is the same as the Spirit or Emissary of the Self-existent.)

c) The order was carried out – Gen. 1:3, 7, 9, 11, 15, 16, 17, 21, 25 and 27:

…………. and there was light. 7 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.

16 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 God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth

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. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: And God saw that it was good.

So, God [the Self-existent - the Holy Spirit] created man in his own image, in the image of God [the Self-existent] created he him; male and female created he them.

Both God [the Self-existent] and the Self-existent [the Holy Spirit] therefore, are Creators.

WHERE DOES GOD THE SON THEN COME IN CONSIDERING JOHN 1:3 AND 10; EPH. 3:9; COL. 1:16; HEB. 1:2?

As the Self-existent [the Holy Spirit] renewed or rebuilt the earth on the order, and on behalf, of God [the Self-existent], Jesus, the Word, God the Son created the original world on the order, and on behalf, of God [the Self-existent]. As He committed the original creation to Him (John 1:3 and 10; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16), He has committed all judgment to Him too - John 5:27; Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10.

We conclude therefore, that:

a) Jesus, the Self-existent, the Son of man, the beginning of the creation of God (Rev. 3:14) created the first earth on the order, and on behalf, of God [the Self-existent].

b) The Self-existent, the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of God on earth - rebuilt or renewed the earth after it was flooded on the order, and on behalf, of God [the Self-existent].

Having removed all ambiguities from it, for thorough assimilation, it is advisable that the entire book be read at a stretch, or at least, within a day, not piecemeal. As the Bible is now available handy - in all communication devices – reading it one or two chapters at a time should now be outdated. With WET, any of the books becomes easy to read at a stretch. In reality, God did not intend that the Bible be read piecemeal.

Note:

Discovering that the teaching about the Trinity which every believer is keen to know more about is made clear in almost all the books of the Bible, and seeing that the gospel ambassadors (apostles - KJV) were deliberate in propagating it as it is evident in the phrase, “God the Father,” employed by all of them who wrote letters (Rom. 15:6; Gal. 1:1 & 3; 2 Tim. 1:2; Jas 1:27; 3:9; 1 Pet. 1:2, 17; 2 John 1:3; Jude 1:1) based on the knowledge our Sovereign Master, Jesus, passed down to them, WET has chosen to use parentheses to reveal each of the members of the Godhead, and color to distinguish the words of each of them, from Genesis to Revelation: Diamond blue for the words of the Self-existent, the Invisible; red for the words of Jesus, the Self-existent, the Son of man; and Green for the words of the Self-existent, the Holy Spirit. Besides, for clarity, many other difficult or obscure words, terms, names and places in the Bible requiring clarification are explained, either in parentheses or with a note underneath. A pen-writer sign is put beside each of these words, terms, names and places to draw readers’ attention to it. Also, it is important that readers be aware that many of our regular Bible translations retain many Hebrew or Greek words due to inability to think out accurate English words for them, as in the cases of YHWH, JAH and Adonai. Such words as “Adam,” “Eden,” “Sabbath,” “Jezreel,” “Mahershalalhashbaz,” “Azazel,” “Angel,” “Seraphim,” “Cherub,” “Maroth,” and “Messiah” in the First Testament, and “Angel,” “Baptist,” “Baptism,” “Baptizer,” “Christ,” “Decapolis,” “Tetrarch,” “Legion,” “Apostle,” “Evangelist,” “Deacon,” “Synagogue,” “Proselyte,” “Paradise,” “Alpha,” “Omega,” and “Presbytery” in the Final, have also been given the best English translations in WET.

Apart from the fact that the presence of Hebrew and Greek loanwords in an English translation is a shortcoming on the part of all the translators, their failure to think out appropriate English words for them has wrecked a great havoc on the church, leading to inadequate understanding of the Bible and the God of the Bible, and causing unnecessary doctrinal differences. In fact, with so many untranslated words, the best English translation on ground is not qualified to be called English translation; it is better taken as partial English translation – and every rational mind knows that the best anyone can get from a partial translation is partial understanding. Since men have continued to improve on Bible translations in order to make the word of God more understandable, it is our belief that God has brought WET about to enhance better understanding of His word.

While we must commend the efforts of the fathers in faith to break the books into chapters and verses, it is noteworthy that, by that, they also succeeded in fractionizing many of the passages, making it difficult for readers to follow some narratives to the end. Accordingly, in WET, all such messages or chapters are merged for easy reading and faster assimilation.

I enjoin you to relax and enjoy the first volume of the second of the three books of the First Testament, in the most readable and seamless translation of the Bible, inspired by the best Writer, in the whole world.

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