{"id":15653,"date":"2022-06-04T14:41:13","date_gmt":"2022-06-04T18:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/figuresofspeechinthebible.net\/?p=15653"},"modified":"2022-06-04T16:13:41","modified_gmt":"2022-06-04T20:13:41","slug":"false-ellipsis-of-genesis-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/figuresofspeechinthebible.net\/?p=15653","title":{"rendered":"False Ellipsis of Genesis 1:2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gen. 1:1-2 KJV
\n\u201cIn the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
\nAnd the earth was without form and void, and darkness [was<\/i>] upon the faces of the deep.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nCountless books have been written presenting various perspectives regarding the beginning, or genesis, of heaven and earth. Needless to say, many more will be written, as the imaginations of men seem to never end. But I dare say, far fewer would have been written if writers had taken time to become familiar with the figures of speech God uses in His Word.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nWithin just the first two verses of Genesis, the Bible’s first book, are several figures of speech. Few readers, and fewer writers are aware of the presence of these figures. And, of those who are aware, the fewest have taken time to acquire a working knowledge of them. And yet, without understanding \u201cwhy\u201d God said, \u201cwhat\u201d He said, \u201chow\u201d He said it, understanding what He meant will escape us.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nAlthough there may be others, the figures Polar-Merismos, Anadiplosis, Paronomasia, Pleonasm, Polysyndeton, and Anthropopatheia have all been employed to communicate God’s message of creation. But by apparently failing to perceive the figure Polysyndeton, translators have added another figure called Ellipsis, which is the intentional omission of a word or words for brevity and focus. Because Ellipsis does not belong in verse two it is actually a \u201cFalse Ellipsis\u201d. King James Version translators indicated their having added a word they believed belonged by italicizing it. It is the second use in verse two of the word \u201cwas\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nWhat they missed was a very easy figure to spot called Polysyndeton. Polysyndeton is defined by E. W. Bullinger, in his work entitled \u201cFigures Of Speech Used In The Bible\u201d, as simply \u201cmany ANDS\u201d. A better definition would be \u201ctoo many ANDS\u201d, while better still is \u201ctoo many conjunctions\u201d. In biblical Greek there are over thirty words and particles used as conjunctions, and several are used to express this figure.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nIn verse 2 Dr. Bullinger considers the second \u201cwas\u201d to be an Ellipsis, which is an intentional omission of a word, generally for focus and brevity. I do not share that opinion regarding the second \u201cwas\u201c. The figure Polysyndeton binds \u201cform\u201d to \u201cvoid\u201d and \u201cdarkness\u201d. If the second \u201cwas\u201d remains as an ellipsis it suggests that all creation was darkened, rather than the Earth exclusively.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nPolysyndeton \u2013 Some who recognize and study figures of speech hold to the notion that any repeated use of the conjunction \u201cand\u201d qualifies the figure Polysyndeton. Others suggest that repeated \u201cands\u201d as found in Genesis and the gospels are simply a particular narrative style used during times when written narrative was not the norm, but oral was. The \u201cand\u201d then was used in a similar way that the modern \u201c.\u201d (period) is, however, with the sense of beginning rather than ending.
\nMy opinion is that the narrative style is present, mixed with what we know as the figure Polysyndeton as well.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anadiplosis:\u00a0Translators have varied opinions as to whether the first word of the verse, \u201cand<\/i>\u201d should be \u201cand\u201d or \u201cbut\u201d, and whether it should be \u201ckai\u201d (\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9) or \u201cde\u201d (\u03b4\u03b5) in the Greek. The figure anadiplosis begins a sentence with the same word or words that the last sentence ended with. Verse 1 ends with \u2026 \u201cand the earth\u201d, then verse 2 begins with \u2026 \u201cand the earth\u201d. It is my opinion that the figure Anadiplosis remains regardless of whether the conjunctive \u201cand\u201d is used or the disjunctive \u201cbut\u201d. The thought is carried from verse 1 to verse 2 that the earth, not the heaven, was without form and void and darkness.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0At this point then, verses 1 and 2 would read as such…”In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness upon the face of the deep.”
\nAdditional study can be done showing that the first usage of the word “was” in verse 2 should actually be the word “became”, and the verse then would make more sense if the Greek word de beginning verse 2 was translated “but”.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nAlso, in his book “Without Form And Void”, Dr. Arthur C. Custance explains the pluperfect verb tense of the word “became” in verse 2 as a fully completed action, thereby reading “had become”.
\nhttps:\/\/custance.org\/Library\/WFANDV\/index.html<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nDr. Rodney Whitefield, in his work “Reading Genesis One”, also explains the pluperfect use of the word “became” in verse 2.
\nhttps:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Reading-Genesis-One-Rodney-Whitefield\/dp\/0972878203<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\nWith these points in mind we can now read verses 1 and 2 as such…
\n“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
\nbut<\/strong> the earth had become<\/strong> without form and void and darkness
\nupon the face of the deep.”
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Ken Rossoll-figuresofspeechinthebible.net \u00a9 6-03-2022.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gen. 1:1-2 KJV \u201cIn the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness [was] upon the faces of the deep.\u201d Countless books have been written presenting various perspectives regarding the beginning, or genesis, of heaven and earth. Needless to say, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/figuresofspeechinthebible.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/figuresofspeechinthebible.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/figuresofspeechinthebible.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figuresofspeechinthebible.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figuresofspeechinthebible.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15653"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/figuresofspeechinthebible.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15655,"href":"https:\/\/figuresofspeechinthebible.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15653\/revisions\/15655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/figuresofspeechinthebible.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figuresofspeechinthebible.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/figuresofspeechinthebible.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}