Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 56:221 (Jan 1899)
Article: Tohu: A Historical And Exegetical Study Of Its Meaning In Genesis 1:2.
Author: Charles B. Warring

BSac 56:221 (Jan 1899) p. 165

Tohu: A Historical And Exegetical Study Of Its Meaning In Genesis 1:2.

C. B. Warring

Poughkeepsie, N. Y.

This word has given translators much trouble, because of their desire to make its meaning harmonize with their philosophy, and their philosophy has so often changed. The only satisfactory course was to determine the sense from the study of other places where tohu occurs, and let the philosophy take care of itself. Those who translated the Hebrew into Greek found tohu to mean vanity, naught, a thing of naught, nothing, and so translated it in the great majority of cases. Even in that much-quoted verse in Jeremiah, “I beheld the earth, and lo, it was tohu” they rendered this word by οὐθέν, nothing. But when they came to it in Genesis, they thought they saw an insurmountable difficulty in the way. It was, they imagined, impossible that the earth ever was in such a condition as would be indicated by naught, a thing of naught, vanity, and the like, which they had so freely used in other places for tohu. So they devised a new meaning to suit their ideas of propriety. They made it read, And the earth was invisible, ἀόρατος. They could understand this; it in no wise contradicted their philosophy, and, besides, it harmonized well with the next verse, which says, “darkness was upon the face of the deep.” But I notice they were not well enough satisfied with that meaning to use it elsewhere. I think they had some doubts about its appropriateness in Genesis.

In preparing the Vulgate, the same difficulty was met,—what to do with tohu. The mistranslation of the LXX. was too glaring to be followed, and so, from the study of the various Hebrew texts in which the word occurs, another meaning, more in harmony with them, was evolved, inanis.

This passed muster for a long time. But the idea that chaos was the real condition of the primal world—an idea which later on was embalmed in Milton’s immortal verse—became more and more prevalent; and so, when King James’s divines met to form a new version, they adopted for tohu, without form, as representing a chaotic condition. Of all renderings this has the least excuse.

That of the Septuagint, invisible, had this in its favor: If it was true, as the account said, that darkness did really cover the deep, the earth certainly was invisible. And as to inanis, that was in pretty good accord with other uses of tohu. But without form was merely forcing into the account what those divines thought was true, viz., that at first there was neither law nor order, form nor shape. This did very well as long as no one question...