In the Beginning: Genesis 1:1

The first sentence of the Bible is mind-blowing: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1 NIV). Of course, this shows God’s creative power to bring all things into existence, including time, matter, space, and the laws of nature, but it also shows his love. Since there is nothing higher than God, he was not forced to create a single thing. He created everything out of love because “God is love.”

Rather than delving into the theology of Genesis 1:1, this post will focus on how it relates to Genesis 1. For a long time, I read Genesis 1:1 as a summary of Genesis 1. In this way, the book of Genesis opens with a concise one-sentence overview then fills in the details with the six-day creation account.

But verse 2 raises questions: “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

Where did this formless water-covered earth come from? And how long was it there? The six-day account narrates how God created the light, sky, land, animals, and humans, but why doesn’t it say God created the earth and water of Genesis 1:2? Or does it?

Augustine (AD 354-430)

These are not new questions. In his Literal Commentary on Genesis, Augustine writes:

Heretics who reject the Old Testament tend to throw scorn on this passage, saying “How did God make heaven and earth in the beginning, if the earth already existed!?” They don’t realize that this part was put in to explain ‘earth’ in the previous sentence. This is how we should take it: the ‘earth’ God ‘made’ was invisible and shapeless until God himself disentangled it and transformed it from a muddle into an ordered system. (4.11)

The “heretics” Augustine is referring to are the Manicheans, or followers of Mani (AD 216-274), a faith he once followed. They held to dualism—the universe is composed of two eternal and opposing forces, good and evil. And they used Genesis 1:2 as support for their teaching: God did not create the earth of verse 2 because it existed prior to his work of creation.

But Augustine responds by asserting that the primordial earth of Genesis 1:2 was made in Genesis 1:1: “They don’t realize that this part was put in to explain ‘earth’ in the previous sentence.” So God originally created the earth in an empty watery state. The remainder of Genesis 1 explains how God transformed this earth into an “ordered system.”

Referring to the water of Genesis 1:2, Augustine says:

It has not yet said that God made the water. Still, we should certainly believe that God made the water, and that it did not exist before he made it. He is the one from whom and through whom and in whom all things come [Rom. 11:36], as the Apostle says. So God made the water, and it is a huge mistake to believe otherwise. (4.13)

Augustine knows the text does not explicitly state “God created the water,” but he strongly affirms that God made the water because of Romans 11:36. Augustine’s view, then, is supported by two points: (1) “the earth” of Genesis 1:2 is in Genesis 1:1 (2) other verses. Moreover, Augustine’s view is not eccentric. Thomas Aquinas, the Reformers, and the majority of orthodox theologians agree with Augustine that the “formless and empty” earth of Genesis 1:2 is the result of God’s creative act in Genesis 1:1 (Blocher, 64).

Contrary to Augustine, many modern scholars do not think Genesis 1 teaches that God made the earth and water of verse 2. Hence, Genesis 1 does not teach creation out of nothing or in Latin, creatio ex nihilo. Instead they think it teaches creation out of chaos because a chaotic earth already existed when God began his work of creation. Where did it come from? They argue the text doesn’t say.

So who’s right?

I have disagreed with Augustine in other places, but on this matter, I think he’s right. Genesis 1 affirms that God made the earth and water of Genesis 1:2. Consider the following points.

Two Points

• Connection to Genesis 1:1: In Hebrew the last word in verse 1 is the same as the first word in verse 2. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” The Hebrew word eretz appears twice side by side so the author wants us to connect “the earth” in verse 1 with “the earth” in verse 2. As Augustine says, “this part [verse 2] was put in to explain ‘earth’ in the previous sentence [verse 1].”

But isn’t the phrase “the heavens and the earth” a merism and don’t merisms have their own meaning apart from their individual components? (A merism is a literary device that refers to a totality, such as “day and night” meaning all the time, so “the heavens and the earth” is a phrase that refers to everything.) Yes, in part. Hence, Genesis 1:1 is saying, “In the beginning God created everything.”

So why is Genesis 1:1 not translated as, “In the beginning God created everything”? Because it would break the link between the two verses. William Brown writes:

The two products of creation have been commonly considered a merismus that constitutes the whole of creation, i.e., the cosmos, but no commentator I am aware of has ever offered such a rendering as a translation. The difficulty for such a rendering is that the first word of v 2, hā’āreṣ, clearly has some point of semantic continuity with the last word of v 1. Thus its occurrence in v 1 is not simply meant to function as one part of a merismus without independent meaning. (1993, 102 n. 12, cited here.)

In other words, Brown is saying we need the phrase “the heavens and the earth” to enable us to see the connection between “the earth” in verse 1 and “the earth” in verse 2. This means “the heavens and the earth” in verse 1 is a merism, but it is also more than a merism. Typically, one part of a merism should not be viewed as an independent entity because it is part of a totality. In this case, however, the author wants us to consider “the earth” as an independent entity because it is immediately mentioned independently in verse 2.

What does the author want us to know about “the earth”? It was (1) “formless and empty,” (2) covered with darkness, (3) covered with water, (4) “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” So here are the reasons to conclude “the earth” in verse 2 was created in verse 1. First, verse 1 uses a merism to assert that God created everything and that everything must include the earth and water of verse 2. Second, verse 1 ends with “the earth” and verse 2 begins with “the earth” so we should consider this part of the merism in its individual meaning. Since the six-day account does not mention the creation of the earth and water of verse 2, Genesis 1:1 includes divine activity that occurred prior to anything God did during the six days. In brief, the water-covered earth of Genesis 1:2 was created in Genesis 1:1.

• Connection to Ancient Understanding: What did ancient Hebrews and Christians think about the origin of the universe? Consider the following verses:

• • Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (Ps 90:2)

• • Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (Jn 1:3)

• • For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Rom 11:36)

• • yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. (1 Cor 8:6)

• • For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. (Col 1:16)

• • By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Heb 11:3)

• • You are worthy, our Lord and God,
        to receive glory and honor and power,
    for you created all things,
        and by your will they were created
        and have their being. (Rev 4:11)

In addition, 2 Maccabees, written around 100 BC, explicitly states: “I beg you, my child, to look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed” (7:28). This is the clearest affirmation of creatio ex nihilo.

God was seen as the creator of all things and all things included the earth and water of Genesis 1:2. How could believers have said God created all things if they thought a watery planet existed prior to creation? They obviously didn’t read Genesis 1:2 that way.

I understand the desire to allow each author’s voice to be clearly heard without imposing other ideas on the text. But the testimony that God made all things rings loudly in Scripture and Genesis 1:2 doesn’t decrease that ring. Augustine’s theological instincts were correct. We cannot read the wider biblical testimony and come to any other conclusion about the origin of the earth in verse 2. Let me say this another way: the repeated affirmations that God made everything contradict the idea that the earth existed prior to creation.

Granted, Genesis 1 is not focused on the origin of the earth in verse 2. Instead it focuses on how God transforms that earth into a habitable place then fills it with inhabitants during the six days. But we have something much bigger than an elephant in the room that we cannot avoid asking about—an entire planet covered in water. Where did it come from? Jewish and Christian theology affirm that the only correct answer to that question is God.

Another Translation?

It’s worth noting that there’s another way to translate Genesis 1:1-2 as attested by the NRSV Updated Edition:

When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

If this is the correct translation, Genesis 1:1 is not an independent statement referring to a prior event. Instead it is a temporal clause that flows into the description of earth. The majority of English translations, however, don’t support this re-translation and it does not correspond with the Masoretic Text or the oldest versions, such as the Septuagint, which is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible:

ΕΝ ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

It seems that ancient interpreters understood Genesis 1:1 to be an independent statement. Hence, I think it’s best to stick with the traditional reading.

Conclusion

Les Bridgeman

I have served as a high school Bible teacher and counselor in Asia and the U.S. I am passionate about understanding and teaching the Bible. Here’s a link to my book page.