Time and Place. (3)

The Scriptural association of  chronology and topography with doctrine and purpose.

by Charles H. Welch

#3. Before the overthrow, and 
Since the ages times. Gen. i. 2. 

Although there is no statement as to time in Gen. i. 2, upon examining other parts of Scripture we shall learn that a most important time period is associated with it: 

“And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Gen. i. 2). 

“And”, the translation of the Hebrew vav, is also translated by the adversative “but” (Gen. ii. 6). 

“Without form and void”, cannot refer to the original state of creation, first of all 

because, elsewhere, God Himself says that He did not create the world in that condition and, secondly, because the word bara, “create”, denotes “to cut” or “carve”. This meaning is reflected in the Greek word kosmos, “world”, which is once translated “adorning” (I Pet. iii. 3) and, with kosmeo, “adorn”, “garnish” and “trim”. The verb 

“was”, in the phrase “The earth was without form and void”, translates the preterite of 

hayah, “To be, exist, become, come to pass”. The word is translated “became” in 

Gen. ii. 7, “and man became a living soul”, and this translation is true, for it is 

self-evident that until he “breathed” man was not a living soul. Similarly we translated 

Gen. i. 2, “But the earth became without form and void”. The words translated “without 

form and void” are the Hebrew words tohu and bohu. Tohu occurs twenty times in the 

O.T., and is translated “without form”, “waste”, “vain”, “vanity”, “nothing”, “in a 

wilderness”, “the empty place”, “confusion” and “a thing of nought”. Bohu occurs but 

three times, and is translated either “void” or “emptiness”. While certain conclusions 

could be drawn from the words themselves and their roots, we have a safer and more convincing argument to hand in the usage of these words in the inspired Scriptures 

themselves. The only One Who can supply us with first-hand information about the 

process of creation is God Himself, therefore one word spoken by Him must outweigh all else that ever has been or can be said on the subject.

“For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth
and made it; He hath established it, He created it NOT IN VAIN (tohu), He formed it to
be inhabited” (Isa. xlv. 18).

The two words tohu and bohu come together in Isa. xxxiv. Let us acquaint ourselves 

with the context. In verse 2 we have the words, “Indignation”, “fury”, “destroyed”, 

“slaughter”, and verse 4 takes us to the day of which Peter speaks in his second epistle (II Pet. iii. 10, 12): 

“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled
together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. For My sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment” (Isa. xxxiv. 4-6). 

This is not creation but dissolution. This is the result of curse and judgment, “For it is 

the day of the Lord’s vengeance” (verse 8). This land is to “lie waste” (Isa. xxxiv. 10) 

and be uninhabited or traversed by man until the age ends, and to describe this utter 

desolation the prophet has recourse to the words of Gen. i. 2, tohu and bohu: 

“He shall stretch out upon it the lines of confusion (tohu) and the stones of emptiness 

(bohu)” (Isa. xxxiv. 11). 

We have confirmation of this meaning in the writings of the prophet Jeremiah:

“I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and 

they had no light” (just as darkness was on the face of the deep) . . . “there was no man 

. . . . . the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger” (Jer. iv. 23-26). 

Here, once again, we have anger and its result. If Isa. xxxiv. said the land was to 

“lie waste” Jer. iv. says “The whole land shall be desolate” (Jer. iv. 27). 

However interested he may have been in this study of tohu and bohu, the reader may 

be wondering where the “time” element comes in. To this we now address ourselves. In Eph. i. 4 we read: “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the 

world.” This word “foundation”, katabole, must not be confused with the “foundation” 

of Eph. ii. 20 which is themelion. Kata means “down” and ballo means “to throw”. 

“Katabolism” is used to this day in Biology to define the breaking up process of 

metabolism or the processes, in living beings, of assimilation and decomposition. The 

verb kataballo is used by Paul in a context that leaves no room for doubt: “Persecuted, 

but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (II Cor. iv. 9). This meaning is 

confirmed by John in the Revelation: “The accuser of our brethren is cast down” (Rev. xii. 10). This verb kataballo occurs many times in the LXX version. We find it 

used of the siege of a city: 

“Joab battered the wall, to throw it down” (II Sam. xx. 15). 

It is used of the overthrowing of Israel in the wilderness: 

“He lifted up His hand against them, to overthrow them in the wilderness; 

to overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands” 

(Psa. cvi. 26, 27). 

Again it is written concerning the destruction of Tyre:

“And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus: and break down her towers” (Ezek. xxvi. 4). 

A correspondent recently sent us a paper in which he agreed that the verb kataballo 

means “To overthrow”, but by some process which he did not reveal nor support either 

by Scripture or the Lexicon, he maintained that the noun katabole meant “making a new 

start”. It is foreign to the genius of language, whether ancient or modern, thus to separate 

noun and verb. If I sing (verb) that which I sing must be a song (noun). I cannot “sing” a 

“speech” or anything outside the category of “song”. Similarly, if I overthrow (verb), 

that which is overthrown cannot be something freshly started or something constructed.

We therefore bring together the testimony of the Hebrew words tohu and bohu and the 

meaning and usage of kataballo and katabole, with the result that we are forced to 

translate Eph. i. 4, “before the overthrow of the world” and refer it to a period that 

comes between verses 1 and 2 of Gen. i. Further light upon this period is thrown by 

the time reference in II Tim. i., which deals with the same calling and company as those 

of Ephesians: 

“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, 

but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before 

the world began” (II Tim. i. 9). 

The original reads pro chronon aionion, “before age-times”. 

We therefore now know two things of intense interest from the point of view of 

Biblical chronology. 

(1) The church of the mystery was chosen in Christ before the overthrow of the world. 

(2) And that with the reconstruction and making of the heavens and the earth in the six 

days, the age-times began. 

Seeing that the dissolution of II Pet. iii. stands at the end of the present creation, just 

as the chaos of Gen. i. 2 stands at the beginning, it is a sound inference to draw that just 

as the “ages” commence with the present creation, they come to their end with the new 

heaven and the new earth. Looking at Gen. i. 1 and 2 together, in this matter of time 

and purpose we perceive that as a beginning, looking constantly at the end in view, God 

created the heaven and the earth. This end, however, was not to be attained mechanically 

or by arbitrary force; moral beings were created, whether Satan, spirits or man, and the

possibility of fall and judgment was foreseen and provided for, so that the glorious end
shall be attained in Christ, by grace, with due recognition of the values of righteousness,
holiness and love.

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(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 34, page 171).

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