Following my previous blogs about the beginning of Genesis 1, I have received questions from various sources, all of which concern the casting down of the world. What is that and what does it have to do with Genesis 1?
We encounter the term the casting down of the world ten times in the New Testament. In the current translations, such as the NKJV and Statenvertaling, it is always translated with the foundation of the world. At the bottom of this blog** you will find all texts where this expression occurs.
judgement?
Some explain this casting down as a judgment of God, which has come upon a world that existed before the present world. It is said that when Gen.1:1 states that God created the heavens and the earth and Gen.1:2 states that this earth was without form and empty, this is because of a judgment that took place between Gen.1:1 and 1:2. There are those who say that this was a judgment on Satan and his angels, others declare that there was an inhabited world before this, which was judged. The destruction then concerns the judgment by which this world has become desolate and empty.
hole
If we follow this reasoning, there is a gap between Gen.1:1 and Gen.1:2. That is why this doctrine is called the Gap theory in English. According to this doctrine, the days mentioned in Genesis 1 are not days of creation, but days of re-creation. In those days God restored a world that had been judged before. In our country this theory is known as the theory of restitution.
prostration
The word that is rendered foundation in the current translations is the Greek katabole. This word is made up of the parts DOWNWARD+THROW. Literally a rejection. The special thing is that in the texts where the expression the destruction of the world occurs, it mainly concerns Scriptures that indicate that something happened a long time ago. The first occurrence of the term is an example of this and is a quotation from the Old Testament. This verse explains why Jesus spoke in parables.
Matthew 13
35 That the word might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things which are hidden from the destruction of the world.
Psalm 78
This is a quotation from Psalm 78, a Psalm of Asaph. Asaph had an important position in the court of David regarding the making of music. David was a prophet (Acts 2:30) and Asaph, whom David appointed, also prophesied through music (1 Chron. 25:1-2).
Psalm 78
2 I will open my mouth with a proverb, I will utter riddles of old
of old
What is called in Matt.13:35: from the casting down of the world, is called in Ps.78:2: from before. It points us to a (distant) past, but we cannot conclude from this Scripture exactly when this was. It would take too long for this blog to go through all the texts, but the other occurrences of the casting down of the world also do not provide a definitive answer as to when exactly this was. In any case, it was before Abel (Luke 11:50-51), we read.
It is precisely the other texts, where we do not encounter the term the destruction of the world, but the word casting down (katabole), or a conjugation thereof, that shed a lot of light on the meaning. More about that in a next blog.
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** the casting down of the world: Matt.13:35; 25:34; Luke11:50; John17:24; Eph.1:4; Heb.4:3; 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20; Rev.13:8; 17:8