The Book of Genesis has long raised many questions, it is said to be the most researched, discussed and commented upon text in the Old Testament Bible. At the July 11, 2024 Bible Talk, the theme specifically addressed the expression tohu wabohu found in the text of Genesis 1:2. Tohu wabohu is understood and translated in various ways. There are many linguistic and theological explanations, as well as theories on history, meaning and translation.

The word tohu can be interpreted as "barren" or "arid". We can compare with the word midbar uvetohu (Deuteronomy 32:10). Both words have parallels with the word ‘desert’ (literally: wasteland). However, early interpreters and translators saw the meaning ‘barren’ as not fitting the context of Genesis 1. So other meanings were also proposed, such as: formless, chaos, emptiness, nothingness. The use of the word is reflected in various translations, including the New Living Translation. This is due to the influence of the tradition of translation and interpretation, intertextuality. The word bohu appears only three times in Old Testament texts and always in combination with the word tohu. It is usually associated with the Arabic word bahiya which means ‘empty’ (house, camp, land). So it can be understood that the word tohu has a concrete local-geographical meaning, not an abstract ontological diction such as: emptiness or nothingness.

How to understand tohu wabohu in the creation story in Genesis 1?