One history · chapter 1 of 11

The World Before This One: Earlier Worlds in Genesis and Myth

Before the first day · story date: before 12,900 years ago

A thought experiment

This series asks what history looks like if the old texts are records, not myths. Each claim rests on a quoted text. It is a reading, not an established fact.

Earth is older than the story Genesis tells about it. When the Bible opens, the planet is already here, "without form, and void," a ruin covered in dark water. Creation week is a rebuild.

Other cultures remember the earlier worlds directly. The Aztecs count four suns before ours, each ended by a different disaster. Hesiod counts four races of people before us, each made and then removed. An Egyptian priest tells the Greek lawgiver Solon that humanity has been destroyed "many times" by fire and flood, and that the Greeks only forget because their records are wiped each time.

What the texts say

Genesis 1:2 · KJVAnd the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

Legend of the Suns · 1558Four earlier worlds ended by jaguars, wind, a rain of fire, and a flood.

Hesiod, Works and Days 109–201Golden, silver, bronze, heroic, then iron: five races of humans.

Plato, Timaeus 22b–d · JowettThere have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes.

If someone pushes back"Without form and void" usually means unshaped, not ruined. Answer: the answer points to Jeremiah 4:23, where the same words describe a land destroyed by judgment.

Questions people ask about The world before this one

What does 'without form and void' mean in Genesis 1:2?

It is usually read as 'unshaped and empty', the raw state before creation. This chapter reads it as a ruin, pointing to Jeremiah 4:23, where the same words describe a land destroyed by judgment. That is a reading, not the standard interpretation.

Do other cultures describe worlds before ours?

Yes. The Aztec Legend of the Suns counts four earlier worlds ended by jaguars, wind, a rain of fire and a flood. Hesiod's Works and Days lists golden, silver, bronze and heroic races before our iron one.

What did Plato's Egyptian priest tell Solon?

In Plato's Timaeus, an Egyptian priest tells Solon that 'there have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes', and that the Greeks forget because their records are wiped out each time.