Expert: Messianic Rabbi Yochanan Levine - 9/13/2011

Question
so my torah is wrong about his word "  Genesis 1;28 replenish "
or maybe he make mistakes, and instead should had said "fill"

Answer
Shalom Eryk,

If this is a follow up question its good to include the original or at least the gist of it. This seems to begin  mid-sentence. I speak with a lot of people each day.

Its not a question of being a mistake. Its simply that no translation is perfect and the Hebrew here can be read either way.

Understand too that the Hebrew/Jewish mindset is different from the Greek/Christian mindset. We Jews celebrate possibilities and look for ever deeper insights and, generally, in most areas, we are not so dogmatic -- realizing the awesomeness of the One God and the innate limitations of the human mind.  

The word translated as "replenish" in the KJV is:

mâlê'  mâlâ'
maw-lay', maw-law'
A primitive root, to fill or (intransitively) be full of, in a wide application (literally and figuratively): - accomplish, confirm, + consecrate, be at an end, be expired, be fenced, fill, fulfil, (be, become, X draw, give in, go) fully (-ly, -ly set, tale), [over-] flow, fulness, furnish, gather (selves, together), presume, replenish, satisfy, set, space, take a [hand-] full, + have wholly.

So both are correct translations. Which is most correct must be determined by context.

As you doubtless know (hence the question presumably) this difference is one of the foundations of the "old Earth theory." Some believe that two creation accounts are recorded in the first two verses. One, "in the beginning" and the other after "the earth was [lit. "became": hâyâh: to exist, that is, be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary): - beacon, X altogether, be (-come, accomplished, committed, like), break, cause, come (to pass), continue, do, faint, fall, + follow, happen] without form, and void."

This debate has gone on for thousands of years. Both views can be supported Scripturally in my opinion (I lean toward the Old Earth view). Most of the respected elders of Israel have sided with the "Young Earth theory" (i.e. that the planet was created in the year 1 HH -- 3761 BCE (HH = Ha'luach Ha'ivri: The Hebrew Calendar reckoning).

I hope this is useful to you,

~ Rabbi Yochanan Levine
http://yeshivabethhashem.org