But they will perhaps ask, what then is the meaning of male and female, and Be fruitful and multiply? In answer we shall say that Be fruitful and multiply does not altogether refer to the multiplying by the marriage connection. For God had power to multiply the race also in different ways, if they kept the precept unbroken to the end. But God, Who knows all things before they have existence, knowing in His foreknowledge that they would fall into transgression in the future and be condemned to death, anticipated this and made male and female, and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply.

Genesis 1:28 in the KJV reads:

> "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth..."

Some have made much of the English word 'replenish,' suggesting it implies humans existed before Adam and Eve and that the earth was being re-populated. However, looking at the underlying Hebrew word (male') clears this up. The word simply means 'to fill' or 'to be full.' For example, the exact same Hebrew word is used in Genesis 6:11 to describe the earth being 'filled' with violence. The linguistic concept of re-filling is an artifact of 17th-century English translation choices, not the original Hebrew text.

Genesis 1:28, KJV

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

According to some, this verse in the King James Version indicates that Adam and Eve were to refill the planet, implying that that they weren’t the first humans God created but were part of a “second creation.” Many who accept the gap theory believe this. However, take a look at the same verse in the New King James Version.

Genesis 1:28, NKJV

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

The word replenish in the King James Version was used in the seventeenth century (when the King James Version was translated) to simply mean “fill.” It expressed such ideas as to stock, fill, supply, or inhabit. Replenish is related to the word replete; being replete with happiness is being full with happiness. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the word replenish to mean “to fill again” occurred in 1612, one year after the King James Version was published. Furthermore, it was used in a poetic sense, and Genesis 1:28 is not poetry. The English word has changed meaning over the centuries so that the word replenish today generally means “refill.”

The original Hebrew word for replenish in Genesis 1:28 is male. This word simply means “fill” and is translated that way in the King James elsewhere (e.g., Genesis 1:22). So neither the Hebrew word nor the English word chosen by the King James Version translators meant, at that time, “refill.” The translators’ choice of replenish may have been meant to convey something akin to “fill up” (i.e., to “make replete [full]”), but they were certainly not trying to convey anything about another filling of the earth.

The New King James Version (and some other versions) correctly translates the word in today’s parlance as “fill.” This apparent “contradiction” is simply a translational issue—not an error in the original manuscripts.