My Commentary on the Beginning of Creation from Genesis 1:1, 2
Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was(A) without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
This is one of the most ignored phrases in the creation account and it answers so many questions. You ask what the phrase is. The phrase is “In the beginning”. This phrase is hardly taught on and yet it is the key to the next two verses. When this phrase is examined in the context of the first and second verses it clearly states that the heavens and the earth were created by God in the beginning. It sounds pretty obvious but it really isn’t. The heavens and the earth are the sum, the totality of, God’s material/immaterial universe of things discovered and things not yet discovered.
The beginning refers to that period of time when everything that was created was created. Why do I say that? The definition of the word beginning in the Hebrew (which is one of the languages the Old Covenant was written in in the original manuscripts) is this: the first in place, time, and order. According to that definition the fifth day isn’t the “beginning”. The second day isn’t the beginning. The beginning is literally the beginning. So it means that the very first thing that God did, before anything else, is He created the heavens and the earth. This sounds absurd to the modern ear. This is part one of creation. This is when all things were created but wasn’t defined or formed as of yet. It is like buying a model car that comes in pieces. When you take it out of the bag in all of its little, individual pieces it is still a car regardless of the fact that it isn’t put together yet. Verse two above is the result of what we are discussing here. The earth was created and yet without form. The earth was obviously there because God called this undefined matter earth. The matter that God had created was EVERTHING that God would use to create and define all that we now know of. With that said, this created matter had no form to it yet. It was also void in that (according to the Hebrew definition) it was an undistinguishable ruin. It doesn’t mean that the earth did not exist, but that it was a mass of undistinguishable matter ready for formation. In the Hebrew, the deep is defined as the abyss (as a surging mass of water). Notice it did NOT say a surging mass of water as is usually portrayed, but AS or LIKE a surging mass of water. What does this mean? This is how this undefined mass of matter called the earth is described, it is like water. It gives a picture of how the ocean might look except it is a sea of matter (water in a figurative sense) rather than literal water. 2 Peter 3:6 refers to this word water and further explains the above. “For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the Word of God.” 2 Peter 3:6. The phrases “out of”, and “through” is key to understanding this. The phrase “out of” in the Greek speaks of a point of origin. Through refers to the channel of an act. The earth was formed from the point of origin which was the unformed mass of matter. It was able to be formed out of the act that preceded it in the creation of all things, at the point of time when all was created there in what was called the beginning. In other words, the earth was formed through the act of creation that took place at the very beginning by the Word of God. The origin was the water, or mass of unorganized, unformed matter. This leads us to the next point.
The Spirit of God hovered, or moved, over the face of these waters. At this point the Spirit of God prepares to bring order to this chaotic mess. He is preparing to bring the earth from an undefined, undistinguishable, chaotic state of being to something that is defined, distinguishable, and orderly. The word hovering, or as found in the King James Version moved, means to brood, to flutter. This teaches us that as a hen moves to brood (or gathers) her chicks so that there is some order in the brood and so that the hen can protect her brood; God does this with the created matter. It is a picture of God taking what He has created and gathering it together as a hen gathers chicks, moving in such a way in order to bring order and form to the earth.
So much for the damnable heresy of the gap theory.
