Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

The earth was without form. The earth had no shape. It was not round, square, triangle, jagged, etc… The Hebrew word means empty and nothingness, simply put, nothing was there.

The earth was void. Void means empty space, emptiness, devoid, a gap, a vacuum. In other words it had no volume and did not occupy any space.

Simply put, this passage teaches that at this point the earth did not exist, it had not yet been formed and had no mass.

So when did the earth first appear? That depends on what you consider to be the earth.

Genesis 1:7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which [were] under the firmament from the waters which [were] above the firmament: and it was so.

On the second day the earth still did not exist, but the waters from which it was created were in place. God made the firmament, which divided the waters below from the waters above.

Have you ever watched on TV when an astronaut pours out water in a zero gravity environment? The water collects together and forms a sphere. This is what happened to the waters which were below the firmament. This is the first phase of the earth creation.

Genesis 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry [land] appear: and it was so.


On the third day God looked upon the sphere of water and commanded that the waters be gathered together and the land to appear. We now have an earth similiar to that seen from outer space.

Genesis 1:10 And God called the dry [land] Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that [it was] good.