What is the Biblical basis for an Old Earth? According to a comment by another user in this question Why do OEC discount the literal interpretation of the book of Genesis?, apparently there's Biblical evidence for an Old Earth. As a Young Earth/Literal Christian I have never been introduced to this theory before. Thus my question.

I have never come across any scripture that talks about the earth being old in a literal sense. Can you tell me what the literal evidence of Old Earth Creation is in the Bible?
There is a idea, known as Gap Theory, that says that the first few verses of Genesis should be translated as the following:

Genesis 1:1


  1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth [became]* 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.


* Brackets denote what some believe is a more accurate translation of the word is.

This is due the the different translations for the Hebrew word "hayah". So, this understanding would indicate that there was an arbitrary amount of time between when God created the earth and when the rest of the creation story occurred. 

Disclaimer: I am not an expert in Hebrew, so I cannot offer a more technical information this particular word. But here is Strong's Hebrew Lexicon definition:


  1961 hayah haw-yaw a primitive root (Compare 1933); to exist, i.e. 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), do, faint, fall, + follow, happen, X have, last, pertain, quit (one-)self, require, X use.


Here is the beginning of the second verse in Hebrew:

וְהָאָ֗רֶץ - ve·ha·'a·retz - the earth

הָיְתָ֥ה - ha·ye·tahm - was (or become)

תֹ֙הוּ֙ - to·hu - (formless)