And the earth was 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.
And the earth was without form, and void. The relation of this to the preceding verse has been the subject of much discussion; some considering that there is but a very loose and remote connection between them, while others maintain that the two verses cannot be separated, because they both refer to the pre-Adamite earth-the former asserting that it owed its origin, in common with all things else in the universe, to the fiat of Almighty power, and the latter declaring what was its condition prior to the establishment of the present terrestrial order of things. But, whether the connection between the two first verses be immediate and close, or loose and remote-whether the statements contained in the second verse refer to events directly continuous, or that did not take place until a period long subsequent to those described in the preceding one-it is allowed on all hands that the two sentences are merely introductory to the narrative which follows; and this view is corroborated by the fact that the division of the text into verses is a modern arrangement, unknown in ancient MSS. and versions. Moreover, in many Hebrew MSS. there is the usual mark of a pause. In some old editions of the English Bible, where there is no division into verses, a break is actually found at what is now the second verse; and in Luther's Bible (Wittemburg, 1557) there is, in addition, the figure 1 placed against the third verse, as being the beginning of the account of the first day's creative work (Buckland's 'Bridge. Treat.')
Opinions as to the import of this second verse are no less diverse than in regard to the degree of relation which it bears to the first, because, according to one class of expositors, it describes the primordial state of the earth when newly emanating from the hands of the Creator; while another class consider it as pointing to a great physical catastrophe which at some subsequent period befell the earth, and from the extensive derangements occasioned by which it gradually emerged when the present mundane system began to be introduced. Since these different conclusions are supported on grounds of philology as well as geology, it is necessary in our exposition to follow a similar course; and, therefore, we shall endeavour first to ascertain by a minute exegesis the precise meaning of the terms employed, after which we shall compare the Mosaic cosmogony with the ascertained facts or prevailing theories of science.
The Hebrew particle х wª -] "and," which is used to combine the successive links in the chain of this narrative, does not indicate any necessary connection between the sentences it unites. 'It discharges,' as Granville Penn has observed, 'the functions of all the conjunctions, both copulative and disjunctive, its sense being determinable in every particular case only by the tenor of the context.' Accordingly, it is rendered in various ways; and while its common signification is 'and,' intimating a continuity of thought, it is sometimes used in an adversative sense for 'but' (Genesis 2:17; Genesis 17:21; Zephaniah 1:13; and 'yet,' Psalms 44:17). Besides, so far is it from implying that the parts of a narrative where it occurs are connected by immediate sequence in point of time, a statement which it introduces may be separated by a considerable and even protracted interval from the course of events narrated in the preceding sentence, without any notice being taken of there being such a chasm. The following instances may be adduced: Exodus 2:1-2, eight years; Deuteronomy 10:5-6, thirty-eight years; 1 Chronicles 10:14; 1 Chronicles 11:1, seven years; Ezra 6:22; Ezra 7:1, fifty-eight years, etc. The earth, х haa'aarets (H776)], while it generally signifies the world we inhabit, does not in every instance refer to the whole planet, but only to limited portions of it, and it is translated "land", Isaiah 7:24; Jeremiah 1:18, etc., where it denotes Palestine; and Jeremiah 51:7; Jeremiah 51:25; Jeremiah 51:49, where it is applied to the Babylonian empire.
Without form and void, х tohuw (H8414) waabohuw (H922)]. The first of these words denotes wasteness, emptiness, a desert (Deuteronomy 32:10; Job 12:24; Psalms 107:40), a desolate city (Isaiah 24:10, etc.) х bohuw (H922) is found only in connection with the former]; and, in passages where they occur conjointly (Isaiah 34:11, and Jeremiah 4:23) they are used to describe the desolations which were to overspread Idumaea and Palestine respectively, and by which those countries would be reduced from the settled and flourishing condition which they exhibited at the time of the predictions into universal disorder and ruin.
The analogous use, therefore, of this rare and peculiar phraseology in the verse before us may imply, according to the first sense of the term, that the world at its creation had neither received its proper shape nor was fit to be tenanted; and accordingly it is rendered in the Septuagint version 'invisible and unfurnished.' Or it may signify, according to the second acceptation in which the words are used, that the world, which had formerly been a scene of material beauty and order, was by some great convulsion plunged into a state of chaos or widespread disorder and desolation. Hence, some eminent critics, who take this view, render the clause thus: 'But (or afterward) the earth became waste and desolate.' This translation is declared by Kurtz to be inadmissible, as being contrary to the rules of grammatical construction; but Dr. McCaul has shown that the verb х haayªtaah (H1961)] 'was,' is, in some twenty places, in this chapter, used as equivalent to 'became,' and that elsewhere it has the same signification without a following Lª - (preposition) (Isaiah 64:5; Isaiah 64:9). That the earth was not originally desolate seems also to be implied in Isaiah 45:18 - "He created not the earth in vain" - Hebrew, 'a desolation.'
Darkness, х wªchoshek (H2822)] - either a state of natural darkness or merely a temporary privation of light. In this sense the term is used in Exodus 10:21-22, to describe the judicial "darkness" that was brought upon the land of Egypt; also in Exodus 14:20, the cloudy pillar was "a cloud and darkness" to the Egyptians at the Red Sea, while it gave light to the Israelites; and, as in both these instances there was light previous to the "darkness," which was superinduced from special causes, analogy would lead us to infer that this was the case also in the demiurgic darkness (cf. Job 38:9).
The deep, х tªhowm (H8415)] must be the watery abyss that overspread the earth. The word frequently occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures bearing this signification; and it evidently refers here to the waters which are said to have been afterward divided (Genesis 1:6-7), and gathered into one place (Genesis 1:9).
Now, three leading schemes have been proposed for reconciling this passage with science. The first we mention is that of Dr. Pye Smith, who supposes that the scenes described in this second verse were confined to a limited section of the earth-a region in Asia which was about to be fitted up for the habitation of man; but which, 'by atmospheric and geological causes, of previous operation under the will of the Almighty, was brought into a condition of superficial ruin, or some kind of general disorder. This state was produced by the subsidence of the region, of which the immediate cause might be the same that we know has often worked a similar effect in various districts upon the earth's surface-namely, that which is probably the cause of earthquakes, a movement of the igneous fluid mass below. Extreme darkness has been often known to accompany such phenomena. The district was overflowed with water, and its atmosphere so impure that extreme gloominess prevailed. Both this deluge, from the flowing in of a sea or rivers, and "the darkness," would be the effect of an extensive subsidence.'
This hypothesis, though it solves many of the difficulties in the Mosaic narrative, creates as many others in turn; and principally because it is applicable only to a portion of "the earth," whereas that word must be evidently taken as bearing the same sense in the second verse that it does in the first, the theory never met with general approval.
Another scheme of reconciliation is, that the second verse describes the state of the earth at the period of the original creation. Geologists say that it was at first a mass of molten incandescence or igneous fusion, enveloped by a dense atmosphere. So that, 'after the external surface had fallen below the temperature which maintains water in a state of vapour, the atmospheric moisture, being condensed, would fall in rain, and the terrestrial spheroid would then be covered with an ocean of uniform depth, and consequently be totally destitute of land' (Lardner's 'Pre-Adamite Earth'). The third scheme of reconciliation supposes the intercalation of a long and indefinite period between the original creation and the state of things to which the second verse refers. An immense interval, of which no record has been preserved, succeeded, during which the earth passed through the various changes which geology has traced, accumulating the successive strata, with their entombed inhabitants, which its bowels contain; and then, at some undescribed period in duration, it became the subject of a superficial catastrophe, by which it was thrown into general dislocation and disorder, overrun by an inundation of waters, and darkened by an accumulation of thick, vapory mists.
Such are the leading views of the most eminent geologists; and it is marvelous how fully the language of the sacred record accords with all of them, so far as they rest on a basis of truth and nature. Whether the earth at its creation was only a mass of nebulous matter, the heavier parts of which, by the law of gravitation, were collected into a ball, and being launched into its orbit in a soft and impressible state, gradually acquired, from being whirled round on its axis, the form of a solid spheroid, while the vapory particles continued still to hover around;-whether a state of aqueous submersion and desolation had been the primitive condition of the earth, or was only superinduced at a subsequent period, after it had subsisted for ages in material order and beauty;-whether the Neptunian or the Plutonian speculatists are in the right, or, as appears most probable, the combined agencies of fire and water were enlisted in the early catastrophes which our world underwent-Moses described this superficial disorder three thousand years BEFORE modern scientific explorers had made an observation, or formed a theory as to its causes and its influence.
And the spirit of God. The Hebrew word х ruwach (H7307)] frequently signifies 'breath,' 'wind;' and in this sense the phrase would, according to Scripture analogy, denote a 'great wind,' as 'the cedars of God' (Psalms 80:10) mean lofty cedars, 'the mountains of God' (Psalms 36:6), high mountains, and Nineveh is termed a great city of God - i:e., an exceeding great city. Some maintain that the word is to be taken in the sense of 'wind' here, from the analogy of that physical agent being employed to assuage the diluvial waters in the time of Noah (Genesis 8:1). But since the separation of the waters from the land did not take place until the second day (Genesis 1:9), the circumstances are not similar; and it is evident that a personal agent, of divine power, is spoken of in this passage, from the effect described to have been produced.
Moved on, х mªrachepet (H7363)]. Our English version does not give the meaning correctly, because this word does not convey the idea of progressive motion, but that of brooding over-cherishing the set of incubation which a fowl performs when hatching its eggs; and the participial form of the verb implies a continuance of this action. (Compare Deuteronomy 32:11, where the word is rendered "fluttereth"). It was not the self-development of powers inherent in matter. The creative movement was made by the will of God; and, as if to refute the doctrine of Pantheism, it is expressly stated that the action was not in, but upon the face of the waters. Throughout the whole of the Old Testament "the Spirit of God" is represented as the great agent in imparting vital energy and action (cf. Psalms 104:3) both to animals and plants; and thus, since He is represented to have brought His immediate influences to bear upon 'the void and formless' world, by working on the dead or discordant elements, the action must be considered as having consisted in combining, arranging, and ripening them into a state adapted for being the scene of a new creation, as well as in endowing it with the power of producing and sustaining new orders of plants and animals. The account of this new creation properly begins at the end of this second verse; and the details of the process are described in terms such as would naturally be employed by a spectator who beheld the changes as they successively took place.