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The Bible:
Genesis 1
Introduction
My approach to Genesis one is to first look at the Hebrew text to see what it means in Hebrew. Next I want to look at other translations from the Hebrew text to see how they understood the text. Then I want to look at how ancient Jewish writers and the early church fathers understood the text of Genesis one. Finally, I want to look at the ancient Near Eastern texts that will help us understand Genesis one.
Hebrew Text
The basic Hebrew text is called the Masoretic Text (MT), which is named after a group of scribes in the ninth century that preserved the text and added vowels and punctuation marks. The original Hebrew just had consonants, but a few consonants functioned as vowels. No one would know how to pronounce the Hebrew words unless vowel marks were added. This is a great help in understanding the text. (Hebrew Bible)
There were three different tasks of copying the OT. The Sopherim wrote the consonantal text. The Nakdanim added the vowel points and accents. The Masoretes added the marginal notes. An example is the Kethib (what is written) and Qere (what should be read). There are over 1,300 of these. The vowels of the Qere were written in the text of the Kethib. There are three different systems of vowel pointing, the Babylonian, Palestinian and Tiberian which the Masoretes created. The marginal notes called Masora were mainly written in Aramaic and were like a concordance.
Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls the Nash Papyrus was the oldest known witness to the OT which dated to the first or second century AD. It contained the decalogue. The second oldest were the Cairo Geniza fragments (about 200,000) which date to the fifth century AD (See Princeton Geniza Project). Most of these are in the Cambridge University Library and the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The oldest known text of the OT was discovered in 1979 in tombs across the Hinnom valley from Jerusalem. The text is the benediction of Aaron (Numbers 6:24-26) written on a silver amulet from the 7th century BC (Hoerth 1998, 386).
The oldest surviving manuscript of the complete Bible is the Codex Leningradensis which dates to 1008 AD. A Facsimile edition of this great codex is now available (Leningrad Codex 1998, Eerdmans for $255). The BHS (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia) follows this codex. The most comprehensive collection of old Hebrew manuscripts is in the Russian Public Library in St. Petersburg formerly called Leningrad. Another important text is the Aleppo Codex which is now in Jerusalem. The HUB (Hebrew University Bible) follows the Aleppo Codex. The Isaiah and Jeremiah editions are now available. For a more detailed study see The Text of the Old Testament by Ernst Wurthwein and Textual Criticism: Recovering the Text of the Hebrew Bible by P. Kyle McCarter, Jr.
Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) like the magnificent Isaiah scroll closely follow the Masoretic Text (MT), but there are a few exceptions. For example, Psalm 136 is an alphabetical psalm. Each verse begins with the next letter in the alphabet, but "N" is missing in the MT. In the DSS it is there, so somehow a scribe left this verse out. Another important difference is in I Samuel 11 where the MT is shortened. The longer reading in the DSS explains what happens in this chapter.
Three of the most important Biblical texts from Qumran are: (1) The Isaiah Scroll from Cave 1 which has two different text types, with about 1,375 differences from the MT. (2) The Habakkuk Commentary from Cave 1 which uses the pesher method of interpretation, and the name Yahweh is written in paleo-Hebrew. (3) The Psalm scroll from Cave 11 contains 41 canonical psalms and 7 apocryphal psalms mixed in among them. The order of the psalms differs largely from the MT (Wurthwein 1979, 32).
Samaritan Pentateuch
The Samaritan Pentateuch (SP), is an important witness to the Hebrew text. It is preserved in ancient Hebrew called "paleo-Hebrew," whereas the Masoretic Text (MT) is in Aramaic block script. Some places differ from the MT especially where to worship, but when the SP agrees with the Septuagint it can be an important alternate reading. There are 1900 such instances (Wurthwein 1979, 43). The only striking difference in Genesis is the chronology in chapters 5 and 11.
The Samaritan Targum translates the Samaritan Pentateuch into Aramaic which can show us how they understood the text. There was no official recension of this targum so surviving manuscripts have their own text.
Septuagint
The oldest and most important translation of the Hebrew Old Testament (OT) is the Septuagint (LXX). It translated the Hebrew into Greek in the third century BC in Alexandria, Egypt. The Letter to Aristide tells the story how the Egyptian king Ptolemy II (285-247 BC) ordered his librarian, Demetrius to collect all the books of the world. Demetrius thought there should be a Greek translation of the Torah so 72 Jews, six from each tribe, were sent to translate the Torah into Greek which they did in 72 days (Charlesworth 1985, 7-34).
There are a number of differences in the LXX from the Masoretic Text (MT), most noticeable is the Book of Jeremiah where the LXX is a third shorter. The chronology in Genesis is also very different than the MT. (Finegan 1998, 195; Larsson 1983, 401-409). Larsson believes that the translators of the LXX tried to harmonize the Biblical chronology with the Egyptian chronology of Manetho by adding 100 years to the patriarchs ages to push back the time of the flood before the first Egyptian dynasty because there is no record of a great flood. Early Christian chronologists emphasized the perfect agreement of Manetho with the LXX (Larsson, 403-4). It is interesting to see how they understood Genesis by the way they translated the text.
There several other important Greek translations that came in the 2nd century AD and later. There is Aquila's (126 AD) translation of the OT into Greek which was upheld by the Jews to counteract the Christian's use and interpretation of the LXX. It is a very literal translation which can be helpful in textual criticism. Aquila might be identified with Onqelos who complied the Targum on the Pentateuch. Symmachus' translation is known for its literary elegance, just the opposite of Aquila's harsh literalness. Theodotion's translation of the OT into Greek is half way between these two extremes. He is known for his transliterations instead of translating. Irenaeus states that Theodotion was an Ephesian and a proselyte to Judaism. Theodotion's translation of Daniel supplanted the original LXX version which was quite different. The Book of Hebrews (11:33=Daniel 6:23) and Revelation both agree with Theodotion's translation (Origen's Hexapla contained these translations). It is also interesting to compare the LXX with New Testament quotations of Old Testament.
Targums
The targums are the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew texts. As a result of the Babylonian captivity the Jews learned Aramaic and forgot Hebrew. From the conquest of Cyrus the Great to the conquest of Alexander the Great the lingua franca of the day was Aramaic. Even in the New Testament Jesus most likely spoke Aramaic, the common language of Palestine at that time. The book of Matthew was probably originally written in Aramaic. I think this accounts for the differences in the other synoptic gospels. It is very interesting to see how the Targums translated and explained the OT.
The block script of Aramaic was adopted for writing the Hebrew text. This might have been to distinguish it from the Samaritan Pentateuch. In some of the Dead Sea Scrolls the name of God was written in Paleo-Hebrew while the rest of the text was in Aramaic block script.
The Targums can be divided geographically into two parts; Palestinian targums, and the Babylonian targums. There are three major Palestinian targums; Targum Neofiti I, Fragment Targum (Jerusalem II), and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Jerusalem I). There are two major Babylonian targums; Targum Onkelos for the Pentateuch, and Targum Jonathan for the Prophets. These two are authoritative for Judaism. These targums have been purged of midrashic additions.
New Testament Quotation
Another important source is the New Testament (NT) when it quotes the OT. Most quotes are from the LXX which was the Bible of the NT church. From Alexander the Great onward Classical Greek became the most important language. At the time of the NT an easier "Koine" Greek was spoken which the NT is written. Before other ancient Greek manuscripts were discovered, it was thought that the NT was written in a special Holy Ghost language. The gospel of Matthew was most likely originally written in Aramaic then translated back into Greek. This would explain the similarities and differences it has with the other gospels. See web site New Testament Greek for resources.
There are about 5,000 Greek manuscripts which contain part or all of the NT. There are three different kinds of manuscripts: (1) papyri, (2) uncials (written in large capital Greek letters), and (3) minuscules (written in small Greek letters). There are also three different text types: (1) Western, (2) Caesarean, and (3) Byzantine.
The two most important collections of papyri were obtained by Mr. Chester Beatty of London in 1930-31 and by Mr. Martin Bodmer of Geneva in 1955-56. The oldest know papyrus fragment of the NT is p52 which contains John 18:31-33, 37-38. It was obtained by Bernard Grenfell in Egypt around 1920. It was discovered by C.H. Roberts in 1934 among other papyri in the John Rylands Library at Manchester (Metzger 1964, 38).
The two most important uncials are A and B. A is also know as codex Sinaiticus since it was discovered at the monastery of St. Catharine on Mount Sinai by Dr. Constantin von Tischendorf in 1844. B is also called codex Vaticanus because it is housed in the great Vatican Library at Rome. Both date to about the 4th century AD. Another important discovery were Greek papyri at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.
Jewish Literature
Ancient Jewish writers are another important source. The two major ones are Josephus and Philo. There are also pseudepigrapha writings, apocryphal writings, and Rabbinic literature.
Josephus
Josephus Flavius was born about 37 AD in Jerusalem. He was a general in Galilee in the Judean army in 67-68 AD. He went over to the Roman army to avoid death. He became a Roman prisoner and interpreter for the Roman army. He wrote The Jewish War around 75 AD, Jewish Antiquities in 93 AD, Against Apion, and The Life around 95 AD. In Jewish Antiquities Josephus starts from Genesis chapter one to explain the history of the Jews to his present time. He offers interesting insight on how the Jews understood Genesis around the time of Christ and his apostles.
Philo
Philo the Jew or Philo of Alexandria lived from about 20 BC to about 50 AD. He came from a wealth prominent family in Alexandria, Egypt. He was well educated. His brother Alexander held various offices for Rome. Alexander's son Marcus, Philo's nephew married Bernice, the daughter of Herod Agrippa I. Bernice is mentioned in Acts 25:13, 23; 26:30. Alexander's other son Tiberius became procurator of Judaea from 46 to 48 AD.
Philo is important in understanding first century AD Hellenistic Judaism and NT writings of Paul, John (logos) and Hebrews (shadow; see Williamson 1970; Attridge 1989, 29). Philo is considered to be a Middle Platonist (Philo 1993). He is also know for his allegorical interpretations. Philo wrote On the Creation (De Opificio Mundi) which helps us understand his view of Genesis. He also wrote Questions and Answers on Genesis, but this only starts with chapter two of Genesis.
Pseudepigrapha
Pseudepigrapha is the transliteration of the Greek plural noun that means "with false superscription" (Charlesworth 1983, xxv). This refers to a collection of writings that are falsely attributed to an important Bible character. Most of these writings were written between 200 BC and 200 AD. The Apocrypha are the books preserved in Greek, but not Hebrew that are included in the canon of the OT by the Roman Catholic Church. Ecclesiasticus also called the Wisdom of Ben Sirach has a description of God's creation in Chapter 43.
The Book of Jubilees is the supposed account of events from creation to Moses. Chapter two tells of the six day creation of the world. Events are dated according to their jubilee year. The book defends the 364 day calendar year which assures that festivals fall on the same day of the year. The date of this book is about 100 BC (Charlesworth 1985, 35-142).
The Book of Enoch contains vivid descriptions of Enoch's journeys through the universe. There are 10 heavens that one must pass through to where God dwells. He also tours earth and Sheol. Fragments of I Enoch have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The 3 (Greek Apocalypse of) Baruch tells about Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah who weeps over the destruction of Jerusalem. God sends an angel to comfort and guide him through the heavens. Five heavens are graphically described, but there were probably a total of seven heavens because the work is incomplete, and Origen states that Baruch refers to seven heavens (Origen 1936, 91; Charlesworth 1983, 653).
Rabinic Literature
According to Jewish tradition, Ezra founded the "Great Assembly" of teachers who would preserve the oral traditions. Towards the middle of the third century BC the Great Assembly ceased and another organization the "Sanhedrin" took charge of the affairs of the community. Hillel started the school of Tannaim (meaning Teachers) with a lenient view of the law. His contemporary Shammai also started a school, but was stricter in his views of the law. Judah the son of the great Simeon Gamaliel (Acts 5:34, and teacher of Paul, Acts 22:3), complied the Mishnah about 200 AD which is like the official textbook of the torah. Mishnah is from the root meaning "to repeat" the oral teaching. The Mishnah is arranged in six sections called Sedarim (Orders), each Order has a number of Massichtoth (Tractates). The Tosifta (Supplement) is another work that has additional teaching that was not as authoritative as the Mishnah. Commentary about the Mishnah accumulated which was called Gemara (completion) because it completes the Mishnah. The Mishnah together with the Gemara is called the Talmud. Two Talmuds were complied; the Palestinian Talmud written in Western Aramaic (similar in Biblical Aramaic), and the Babylonian Talmud written in Eastern Aramaic. Miscellaneous material of the Talmud is divided into subject matter into two categories known as Halachah and Haggadah. The Halachah is the section of the Mishnah and Gemara that deals with the law and how to keep it. The Haggadah deals with all non-legal sections, the moral lessons and opinions of the teachers. The Talmud was completed about 600 AD.
The oldest and first complete Jewish commentary on Genesis is Genesis Rabbah. It was complied about 400 AD, but includes teachings much earlier. Verses outside Genesis are brought in to further explain Genesis. There are comments, questions, and arguments from the great Rabbis about the meaning of each verse in Genesis one.
Church Fathers
The early church fathers is another source for OT quotations, and how they understood the OT text. We will now look at some of the important early church fathers who wrote major books on Genesis.
Origen was born about 185 AD in Alexandria. He was a great scholar and author. His greatest work was the Hexapla which put in parallel columns the Hebrew text of the OT, a Greek transliteration, the Greek translation of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, and the LXX. In his major work on theology called First Principles, he expounds on creation. He also wrote homilies on Genesis and Psalms. He is known for his allegorical interpretation of scripture.
Basil preached one of the oldest series of sermons (nine in all) on six days of creation called the Hexaemeron. These homilies were held in high esteem by the early church fathers. St. Basil spoke these sermons extemporaneously to the elite at Caesarea in Cappadocian. Along with his brother Gregory of Nyssa and his friend Gregory of Nazianzus they are know as the "Cappadocian Fathers." Basil was born about 330 AD and succeeded Eusebius as bishop of Caesarea in 370 and died in 379 AD.
Ambrose in 374 was elected bishop of Milan, Italy. He even borrowed from St. Basil's sermons to develop his own nine homilies on the six days of creation called the Hexameron.
Jerome was born about 345 AD. Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damascus around 382 to translate the Bible into Latin. In 386 he settled in Bethlehem in seclusion to complete his translation. It took him 23 years to do this. It is called the Vulgate. St. Jerome also wrote Hebrew Questions on Genesis. He died in 420 AD.
Augustine was born in 354 AD in Northern Africa. He became a follower of Manicheism for nine years before becoming disillusioned with it. St. Ambrose led him to orthodox faith. In 396 he became the bishop of Hippo. His early work is Confessions then later the City of God. Less well known is his three works on Genesis. The first one, On Genesis Against the Manichees, was written about 389 AD. The second one, On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book, was written about 393 AD, but not finished. The third and longest (12 books) is On Genesis Literally Interpreted which was written after 404 AD. In the last three books of his Confessions he talks about Genesis and lastly again in the eleventh book of the City of God which was written about 417 AD. He died in 430 AD.
Vulgate
The Latin Vulgate translated by Jerome from the original languages was declared to be the official text of the Roman Catholic Church by the Council of Trent in 1546. Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damasus I (366-384). Augustine was disturbed at Jerome for setting aside the inspired LXX to go back to the original Hebrew text that no one else could understand (The City of God 18,43).
The Old Latin versions were translated from the LXX which are important witnesses to the LXX before its recensions (revisions). There are two main groups of Old Latin texts; African and European.
Uagritic
The next important step is understanding the Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) texts and culture that relates to the Bible. Ugaritic is the closest language to Hebrew. A number of Ugaritic words are the same as Hebrew. It can help us understand words that are unclear in Hebrew.
In the spring of 1928 an Syrian farmer was plowing his field when he uncovered a stone over a grave. Archaeologists were called in which led to the discovery of the near by ancient city of Ugarit, modern day Ras Shamra (Curtis 1985, 18; Craigie 1983, 7). Many clay tablets were uncovered which were written in cuneiform (Latin for "wedge shaped", letters) in a language called "Ugaritic." There are a number of texts grouped together called the Baal Cycle. It gives us much information about the Canaanite religion.
Akkadian
Another important language is Akkadian. It is also written in cuneiform. Henry Rawlinson went to work for the East India Company in 1827 where he learned Persian. He then went to Persia as a military advisor. In 1835 he copied the cuneiform from the cliffs at the Rock of Behistun. In 1837 he sent his first translation to London (Millard 1985, 28-31). There were three different languages on the Rock of Behistun, Old Persian (Akkadian), Elamite, and Sumerian.
There are very important similar stories to Genesis 1-11 written in Akkadian. There is Enuna Elish which is about Marduk assuming the supreme position in the pantheon. The 7th tablet tells how Marduk created the world. Atra-Hasis is a cosmological epic that tells of the creation of the world, early human history, and a great flood. The Gilgamesh Epic is about the adventures of Gilgamesh, ruler of Uruk He meets Utnapishtim the only survivor of the great flood.
Sumerian
Sumerian is probably the oldest known language. About 3000 BC the Sumerians started using abbreviated pictograms by pressing a reed stylus into clay tablets (Von Sodon 1994, 32-33). It is syllabic language which basically developed from simplified pictograms which became abstract. Many signs have multiple word and phonetic meanings so determinatives were used. The number of signs was later reduced to about 600. It is a very complex language.
Sumerian has stories similar to Genesis 1-11. Some the important texts are: Eridu Genesis which parallels Genesis 1-11, The Sumerian King List which is similar to Genesis 5, The Sumerian Flood Story, The Song of the Hoe which tells about the creation of the world and man, Enki and Ninmah which is the earliest text dealing with man's creation, Emerkar and the Lord of Aratta which deals with times before civilization began.
Egyptian
Egyptian Hieroglyphics also can be helpful. Some creation stories are similar to Genesis, as well as their view of the world. Egyptian wisdom literature is also similar to the book of Proverbs and the Song of Solomon.
With the discovery of the Rosetta Stone by a soldier of Napoleon's army, Champollion was able to decipher the ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics in 1822 (Millard 1985, 26-7).
There are several stages in the development of the Egyptian language. Old Egyptian was used from Dynasties I-VIII. An example is the Pyramid Texts. Middle Egyptian was used from Dynasties IX-XI. Late Egyptian was used from Dynasties XVII-XXIV. A cursive writing known as Hieratic (Greek meaning "priestly") was used for documents which is like Egyptian shorthand. Later Demotic (Greek meaning "popular") emerged which is a rapid form of Hieraitic which was used in books and documents from Dynasties XXV (715 BC) to late Roman times (470 AD).
Finally, the early Egyptian Christians used Coptic which is Egyptian written with the Greek alphabet. There were three dialects of Coptic; Akhmimic used in upper Egypt which gave way to Saidic, and Bohairic used in all of Egypt. The Nag Hammadi papyri was written in Coptic and gives us a window into the beliefs of the Gnostics which means "knowledge" (Robinson, 1977). The most famous book is the Gospel of Thomas which has Gnostic sayings of Jesus (Guillaumont et al, 1959).
Greek
Greek literature can be very helpful in Biblical studies, especially the NT. Most of the great literature is written in Classical Greek which is more formal than Koine Greek.
Homer is credited with composing the Iliad and the Odyssey probably some time before 700 BC (Oxford Classical Dictionary-OCD1949, 435). Tradition tells us that Homer was a blind bard who probably sang lays for the courts of princes for a living.
Hesiod is said by Herodotus to be contemporary with Homer, but was probably later in the 5th or 4th centuries BC. Hesiod with his father and brother, Perses migrated from Aeolis to Greece at Ascra. Hesiod wrote Work of Days in which he addresses his brother about his dispute and that every man should work for a living. He tells of the Five Ages of the World, and then gives advise on farming. Another important work by Hesiod is the Theogony which tells of the creation of the world and gods from Chaos and Gaea by procreation.
Plato lived from about 429 to 347 BC. He wrote 25 dialogues and the Apology. Most important for this study in Genesis one is Plato's dialogue called Timaeus which is about natural science. Plato describes how the creator made the world from a single spherical living thing which has body and soul made after the ideal model (OCD, 699).
Aristotle lived from about 384 to 322 BC. His father was a physician. At age 17 he entered Plato's school and stayed until Plato was succeeded by Speusippus. Later he tutored Alexander the Great and founded his own school. Two of the most important works by Aristotle for our studies are On the Heavens (De Caelo) and Meteorology (Meteorologica).
Ancient Near East
There are several other languages that are not as helpful at the present time, but sometimes have interesting clues. Ebliate is a very difficult language that they are still trying to translate. Over 24,000 tablets have been found. Hittite is another language that seems more useful for the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
To sum it up, Akkadian was the lingua franca for most of the OT period. From Cyrus the Great Aramaic became the world trade language. From Alexander the Great onward Greek became the most important language. At the time of the NT an easier Hellenistic "Koine" Greek was spoken which the NT is written. With Roman domination Latin came into prominence which the church fathers used in the Middle Ages.
Ex nihilo
Ex nihilo is a Latin phrase meaning "out of nothing." It is a theological term that refers to creation not being made out of pre-existing matter.
Ancient Near Eastern Literature
There are at least four major types of creation stories in the ancient Near East; creation by begetting, or spilling semen, creation by battle; creation by action (of separation); and creation by word. There is no express mention of ex nihilo creation. Many accounts assume a watery darkness before creation as does Genesis 1:2. Some start out "When there was not yet" as in Genesis Two (Westermann, 1994, 43). These stories will be discussed further in another chapter.
Jewish Literature
The first mention of "out of nothing" is in 2 Maccabees 7:28 which says, "look upon heaven and earth and all that is in them: and consider that God made them out of nothing, and mankind also" (Douay Version, or DV). The Greek is ex ouk onton. This phrase "out of nothing" is best understood as "out of non-being" or "out of invisible matter" because at that time they still believed in the preexistence of matter. Matter was consider eternal (Goldstein, 1983, 307-10).
The Wisdom of Solomon 11:17 states, "For thy almighty hand which made the world of matter without form" (DV). This verse teaches that God made the world out of formless (eternal) matter (Winston, 1971-2, 185-202; Goldstein, 1984, 127-35). In chapter 7:25 wisdom is seen as a "pure emanation of the glory of the almighty God" (DV).
Philo sees Genesis 1:1-3 through platonic eyes. This is the creation of the invisible world of ideas (On the Creation, 26-37, compare Plato’s Timaeus 29E). The book of Hebrews also seems to follow platonic ideas. The visible world comes from invisible matter (Heb. 11:3). Philo sees preexistent matter alongside of God at the beginning. This invisible matter was eternal (On the Creation, 12). God is the active principle, the formless matter is the passive principle (May, 10). Philo even uses the phrase ek mh ontwn, meaning "out of non-being," and not "out of nothing" (Allegorical Interpretation III. 10). Clearly, there is no ex nihilo creation in Philo.
In Genesis Rabbah Rabban Gamaliel explains by quoting other scripture that everything mentioned in Genesis 1:2 was created, therefore, denying that unformed matter was used by God to create the world. May concludes, "a firm, unambiguously formulated doctrine of creatio ex nihilo is not worked out in ancient Jewry" (1994, 23).
In the Middle Ages Moses Mainmonides wrote The Guide for the Perplexed. He gives three main views of Creation: The scriptural view that the world was created out of nothing; the platonic view that God can not create matter out of absolute non-existence, matter must be eternal; and finally the aristotelian view that agrees with Plato that matter can not be created, but added that it can also not be destroyed, time and motion of the heavens are eternal (Trans. By Friedlander, 1956, 171-73; Burrell and McGinn, 1990, 128). Another great Jewish thinker who came after Maimonides was Gersonides (1288-1344 AD) Gersonides asked some probing questions like "When were the waters created?" Because there was no mention in Genesis of the creation of water, he rejected the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (Burrell and McGinn, 6; Staub, 1982).
New Testament
Hebrews 11:3 states, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (KJV). It seems here that God made the world out of invisible matter (Romans 1:20), or as Plato would say, "inert gas." It seems that the writer of Hebrews is understanding Genesis 1:2 as the LXX did because tohu is translated as "unseen" or "invisible." Is the "word of God" in Hebrews 11:3 the Logos that created the world in John 1:1-3? It may also be similar to Plato’s world of ideas, the logos, and even more closely to Philo’s use of logos.
Romans 4:17 says, "the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they are" (NIV). This is in the context of the birth of Isaac. A similar comparison is found in Xenophon’s Memorabilia that parents "bring forth their children out of non-being" (II,2.3; May, 8). This does not mean that children are creatio ex nihilo.
Early Church Fathers
The early church fathers seem to believe the platonic idea of eternal matter from which God fashioned the world. Justin Martyr is an example. In The First Apology of Justin he says, "He in the beginning did of His goodness, for man’s sake, created all things out of unformed matter" (Chapter 10). Justin and Plato in Timaeus both agree that everything came into being through God (Apology I:20, 4). Justin says that Plato took his ideas about God making the world out of unformed matter from Genesis. Justin states, "Plato borrowed his statement that God, having altered matter which was shapeless, made the world (Apology I:59). The world was made out of preexistent matter.
The successor of Justin Martyr was Athenagoras who was an Athenian philosopher who became a Christian. His Apology or Embassy was presented to Emperors Aurelius and Commodus about 177 AD. He explicitly believed in the pre-existence of matter (Chadwick 1966, 12, 47).
Clement of Alexandria three times "declares that the world is made 'out of nothing', but in each case the phrase he employs is ek me ontos, not ex ouk ontos; that is to say, it is made not from that which is absolutely non-existent, but from relative non-being or unformed matter" (Chadwick 1966, 46).
May in his book Creatio ex Nihilo argues very persuasively for the second century AD development of the doctrine of "creation out of nothing" (1994). It was not until the second century AD that the church fathers saw a theological problem with eternal matter. It was their conflict with the Gnostic and middle platonists that developed the idea of God creating "out of nothing."
Genesis One
I see Genesis one as a polemic against the surrounding heathen nations, who worshipped many gods. It also seems to be etiologically in nature, explaining the Sabbath as a day of rest. One must understand the ancient Near Eastern background in order to properly interpret Genesis. The genre of Genesis one seems to be half way between poetry and prose. Cassuto argues that Genesis one goes back to an original poetic prototype (1961, 8, 10). Genesis two seems to reflect an earlier tradition than Genesis one. Genesis one demythologizes ancient creation stories.
I see it as wrong to try to draw out scientific data about the creation of the universe from Genesis one. Both young-earth creationists and old-earth creationists are guilty of pouring modern scientific terms back into Genesis. God could have written in scientific terms like E=Mc2, but He did not. I believe God had to accommodate himself to our limited knowledge, and limited language to communicate with us. God did not choose to use technical scientific terms to communicate with us. God used the common language, and familiar phrases of their day. God could have told us that the sun does not rise nor set, but that the earth is spinning around the sun. God instead used the common language of sunrise and sunset which was literal to the writers back then, but which modern concordists excuse as phenomenal language that we still use today. God is trying to communicate absolute spiritual truths, not shifting scientific theories.
God’s purpose of inspiration is clearly stated in II Timothy 3:16 which says that the Bible is inspired by God so that it is profitable for instruction in righteousness not instruction in science. To take a poem and use it as a scientific text is wrong. It is like trying to use a hammer as a screwdriver. It does not work. One must understand the historical context and meaning of the original language that the Bible was written in. Let us now look at Genesis 1:1.
Genesis 1:1
Summary Statement
The opening verse of Genesis is still a puzzle. There are two major ways to understand this verse. Is it an independent clause, or a dependent clause? If it is an independent clause, is it a summary statement or heading, or is it the creation of matter out of nothing? If it is a dependent clause, what would it modify, verse two or three? If it is an independent clause it would most likely be a summary statement rather than a heading like in the Psalms. The concept of creation out of nothing, ex nihilo, did not develop until the second century AD in reaction to gnosticism (May, 1994).
The Masoretic punctuation of בראשת with a tipha favors verse one as an independent clause. Ancient translations like the LXX imply that verse one is an independent clause. The New Testament in John 1:1 also understands verse one as an independent clause. In the Middle Ages verse one was seen as a dependent clause. Westermann sees the first verse as a heading to a hymn of praise to God for creating the universe which has been reshaped into a sentence (1984, 94).
Even in Ugaritic a summary statement is given, then the details of the story are told. In the Baal Cycle it tells how the palace of Baal was built. First a summary statement is given, then the details. Gibson translates, "[Quickly] his mansion was built, [quickly] his palace was raised" (1978, 62; KTU 1.4 VI 16-17). Choice cedar trees from Lebanon are brought. A fire is set that burns for 6 days, and on the 7th day it ends. The fire turned the silver into ingots and the gold into gold bricks. Some scholars think the building of Baal’s palace is the building of the universe (Fisher, 1965, 313-24).
By comparing Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:4 that starts with "when," a dependent clause, and the parallel passage in Hosea 1:2, and other ancient Near Eastern creation stories like Enuma Elish, a strong case is made for taking the first verse of Genesis as a temporal dependent clause modifying verse three (Speiser, 1982, 12; Andersen, 1987, 140-1). Even if it is a independent clause, I think the understanding of it is clearer, if I translate it as a dependent clause in English. I would translate it into English as, "(In the beginning) when God began to separate (or order) the heavens and the earth." Whether one takes Genesis 1:1 as a dependent or independent clause, one thing is certain, creation does not start until verse 3 with light.
In Beginning
Hebrew Text
בראשת - In beginningThe first phrase in Hebrew, בראשת, is in a very peculiar construct state with no noun to modify because it is unarticulated which means it does not have the article "the" modifying it. As a construct it would be translated as a temporal phrase "when God began to create" making Genesis 1:1 an incomplete sentence dependent on the next clause (Andersen, 1987, 140; Speiser, 1982, 12). It still can be taken as absolute in meaning even if there is no article (see Isa. 46:10; Eichrodt, 1984, 66), but I think the reasons that there is no article is so that it will be normally taken as a temporal phrase as in Hosea 1:2 which is an almost exact parallel, and for literary assonance, or alliteration (Bullinger, 1968, 171). The first three letters are arb which are exactly the same in the next word arb "he created" (Wenham, 1987, 14). arb בראשת sounds pleasant to the hearers, and is easier to remember. This would also indicate the poetical nature of this chapter. The Samaritan Pentateuch is even closer in rhythm, Barashith Bara (BHS, Kahle, 1959, 318). Another important parallel is with Genesis 2:4b-6 which also starts with a temporal phrase followed by negative statements as is the case with ANE creation stories like Enuma Elish. The opening paragraph of Genesis depicts the situation before creation begins in verse 3. It does not tell us the ultimate origin of the darkness or the abyss. I think Delitzsch is correct in the meaning of the first verse when he says, "His point is not that heaven and earth had a beginning, but that the creation of the heaven and the earth was the beginning of all history" (Westermann, 1994, 98).
The root word for tyvar is var (rosh) which literally means "head." Some have tried to identify Rosh in Ezekiel 38:2 (chief prince) with Russia, but the word "Russia" comes from Old Russian Rus meaning "Norsemen" from the Old Norse Rothsmenn meaning "sea-farers" not from the Hebrew var (American Heritage Dictionary 1979, 1137).
Psalm 33:6 says, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth" (NIV). This is creating by spoken word which similar to the Egyptian creation story of Ptah. The targums seem to personalize the "word" as an emanation of God which is further developed by Philo under the influence of Plato and becomes the Logos of John 1:1. Could not the wind of God be seen as the breath of God speaking the words of God causing creation?
In the book of Proverbs tyvarb is interpreted as "wisdom" (1:7, 3:19, 8:22, also Jer. 10:12). Proverbs 3:19 says, "The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth" (KJV). This seems to reflect the Frag. Targum translation. The earliest Jewish commentary on the book of Genesis is Genesis Rabbah (400 AD) which begins with the interjection of Proverbs 8:30 which probably meant that the Torah was at the beginning to show the process of creation. Using Proverbs 8:22 as a proof text, tyvarb is equated with the Torah (Neusner, 1985, 2).
Dead Sea Scrolls
Among the Dead Sea Scrolls their are two fragments, 4Qgenb and 4Qgeng that record the opening verses of Genesis. There is not a single textual variant from the MT (Ulrich et al, 1994, 31). There is however, a difference in the way the divisions of the text are noted. In the MT the major divisions are marked by (P) after verse 5,8,19,23, but in 4Qgenb the rest of the line is left blank.
The LXX
The LXX translates בראשת as a prepositional phrase modifying the verb arb (created), which I literally translate "In beginning the God made the heaven and the earth" (Wevers, 1993, 1). The Hebrew בראשת (beginning) is unarticulated which means it does not have the article "the" modifying it; therefore, the LXX translates it with no article as En arch, which literally means "in a beginning." This same phrase is found in the NT unarticulated in John 1:1 and I John 1:1 which follow the LXX rendering of בראשת. Both the LXX and the NT take the first verse as a main clause. Wevers states that the LXX translation of verse one is to be taken as "a superscription to the creation account" (1993, 4). Aqulla’s translation is very literal en kefalaiw meaning "in head" (Wevers, 1974, 75; 1993, 1). This may be a reaction to the early Christian’s translation of "In the Son."
New Testament
John 1:1 follows the LXX in translating בראשת as unarticulated. Peter Borgen argues, "John’s prologue is essentially a targumic exposition of Gen.1:1-5" (Hamilton, 1990, 144). Burney believes that Colossians 1:16-18 is a midrashic exposition of the first word of Genesis 1:1, בראשת (Hamilton, 1990, 145). Paul connects the tyvar of Genesis 1:1 and the "wisdom" in Proverbs 8:22 with Christ which Genesis Rabbah interprets as the "torah" (I.I,2.H; Neusner, 1985, 2).
Aramaic Texts
tyvar was thought to be the name for "Wisdom" in Proverbs 8:22, therefore the Fragment-Targums say, "With wisdom the Lord created and perfected the heavens and the earth" (Klein, 19890, 3). This must be a summary statement since creation is not perfected until the 7th day (Genesis 2:1).
The Targum of Onkelos from Babylon which is authoritative for Judaism says, "In Antiquity the Lord created the heavens and the earth" (Grossfeld, 1988, 42). This translation of tyvarb may indicate that no precise order of creation was intended.
The Targum Neofiti I from Palestine translates, "From the beginning with wisdom the Memra (Word) of the Lord created and perfected the heavens and the earth" (McNamara, 1992, 52). In this text both meanings of בראשת are separated to form a doublet.
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan also from Palestine literally says, "From the beginning the Lord created the heavens and the earth" (Maher, 1992, 16). Bowker concludes that all three major targums change the Hebrew word in different ways (1969, 100).
Jewish Literature
Josephus in his book Jewish Antiquities translates בראשת with no article. He sees creation of heaven and earth in verse one, but the earth is hidden by thick darkness.
Philo in his treatise On the Creation states, "In the beginning he created, is equivalent to 'first of all he created the heaven'" (Book I:27). He does not see this as a time indicator, but as a number in sequential order of importance (Wolfson, 1947, 320) .In Genesis Rabbah (I.X) there is a big discussion on why the first letter in the OT is b and not a. Genesis Rabbah also states, "the word for 'beginning' refers only to the Torah, as Scripture says, 'The Lord made me as the beginning of his way'" (Proverbs 8:22; Book I.I.2.H; Neusner 1985, 2). Proverbs 8:22 refers to "wisdom" which the Rabbis interpreted as the "Torah." According to Morris Jastrow Proverbs 8 is "a poetical paraphrase of the account of Creation in Genesis" (Landes 1974, 279), but Landes concludes that Proverbs 8 and Genesis 1 are not directly related in language, style, and purpose (1974, 289-90). It is interesting to note that the Rabbis were forbidden to discuss the Ma'aseh Bere'sit (Account of Creation) in public. The Mishnah states, "the Account of Creation may not be expounded before two or more persons, nor the Chariot before even one, unless he is a scholar who understands of his own knowledge" (m.hag. 2:1; Charlesworth, 1983, 230; Danby, 1933, 213). The Account of the Chariot (Ma’aseh Merkabah) which are descriptions about the heavens like the ascension of Enoch into heaven, was banned (see 2 Cor. 12:1-7 where Paul is caught up into the third heaven).The most extensive passage about creation in the Babylonian Talmud is Hagigah 11b-16a (Epstein, 1935, 59). It also warns of discussions "concerning the pre-creation period" (Ibid, 62).
In the Middle Ages Rashi (a medieval rabbi) takes בראשת as a temporal phrase meaning "At the beginning of his creating" (Bowker, 1969, 101).
The Vulgate
Jerome in his Latin Vulgate translation says, "In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram" which the Douay Version translates, "In the beginning God created heaven, and the earth." Jerome in his book Hebrew Questions on Genesis states, "most people think that in the Hebrew is contained In the Son, God made heaven and earth, which the facts of the matter itself prove to be mistaken. For both the Septuagint, and Symmachus and Theodotion, translated it as In the beginning" (Hayward, 1995, 30).
Church Fathers
Van Winden states, "The first chapter of Genesis is one of the most discussed texts in early Christian literature" (1963, 106). Many Church fathers try to explain the Bible in terms of Greek philosophy. There are two points of contact made in Genesis 1:1; that the term "earth" means "matter" which will be discussed later, and the term arch (beginning) is identified with the Greek doctrine of arcai (origin) which looks at the causes of origin.
Basil see arch as temporal in sense. There are four deeper senses to the word arch; "the first movement", "the basic reality", "the craftsmanship", and "the aim or end" (Van Winden 1963, 108). These seem to correspond to the four arcai of Aristotle (Metaphysics 1013a16s; Aristotle 1952, 533: Van Winden 1963, 108).
Ambrose follows Basil, but divides arch into seven deeper senses of which four also correspond to Aristotle’s. Ambrose adds a hidden mystical sense or allegorical meaning that "beginning" refers to "Wisdom" (Proverbs 8:27) which equals the Logos, Christ. Ancient Near East Heidel states, "most Mesopotamian creation stories begin with a subordinate clause, starting with enuma in Babylonian and ud-da in Sumerian, both of which expressions mean 'on the day'or simply 'when' and corresponds to Hebrew beyom" (1942, 95). This phrase in found in Genesis 2:4b. Then there follows negative statements of creation. Enuma Elish starts off by stating, "When on high no name was given to heaven, Nor below was the netherworld called by name" (COS, 391).
He Created
Hebrew Text
arb - he createdThe Hebrew word arb may come from the root which originally meant "to cut, or separate." Most of creating involved a separation of things. arb does not imply ex nihilo creation since it is used in parallel to "make" (NIDOTTE, 1997, Vol. 1, 731). The verb arb is Qal active, and occurs 49 times in the OT. In the Piel stem arb means "to cut." In Numbers 16:30 arb even in the Qal stem clearly means "cut" or "separate" with Yahwah as subject. Van Leeuwen states, "This root begins in the OT with a theologically rich wordplay. But it also, in a punning way, accents the manner in which God gives order to his creation: he divides its various cosmic components from one another through a series of 'cuts or separation'" (NIDOTTE, 1997, Vol.1, 732).
Note that arb does not occur in the book of Job or other wisdom literature, therefore, Westerman argues that arb is a late word from exilic to post-exilic times (99; TDOT, II, 245). Let's look at some of the verses in which arb occurs.
- Psalm 102:18 states, "Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord" (NIV). In this verse future people are created by God.
- Psalm 104:30 says, "When you send your Spirit, they are created" (NIV). This refers to the animals being created. .
- Psalm 139:13 says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. (NIV). Individuals in the womb are created by God.
- Isaiah 43:1 declares, "But now, this is what the Lord says- he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel" (NIV). Even Israel is created by God.
All these above examples show that people, individuals, animals, and Israel are said to be created, yet it was not ex nihilo. From studying these contexts arb can not be proven to mean ex nihilo.
arb seems to have more the sense of "separate" than "create" especially out of nothing in Genesis 1:1. Nothing is said about where the darkness and watery deep came from. It was probably considered eternal. Isaiah 45:7 says, "I create the light, and form the darkness: I make peace, and create evil" (KJV). This is more a separation than ex nihilo creation. God is like a builder who makes the world by separating the abyss. Once unformed elements are separated and named, they are considered ordered or "created." This is much different than our normal way of using "create" in our English language. Genesis as well as Isaiah sees the created world as sets of binary opposites, like heaven/earth, earth/sea, light/darkness, day/night, man/woman, peace/evil (Deroche, 1992, 20).
Dead Sea Scrolls
In the DSS the word for "create" is used a number of times. In the War Scroll (1QM10:12) it says, "creator of the earth." One of the Hymns 1QH uses arb for the creation of man, and the just man (Col.VII:18). In Col.IX:13-14 arb is in parallel to "founded" and in verse 28 "breath" is created. In 1QS the Rule of the Community says, "He created man to rule the world and placed within him two spirits--spirits of truth and deceit" (Martinez, 1996, 6). All these contexts seem to mitigate against the idea of ex nihilo creation. Man was formed from the dust of the earth not "out of nothing" (TDOT, 1974, Vol.2, 249).
Many ancient Near Eastern creation stories also start with a watery beginning of formless matter from which the universe is made by separating them. Let's look at some of these.
Ancient Near Eastern Literature
Creation in the OT and in the ancient Near East is not what we think of creation implying "out of nothing." As stated earlier, there are at least four major types of creation stories in the ancient Near East; creation by begetting, or spilling semen; creation by battle; creation by action (of separation); and creation by word. Creation in Genesis is mainly separating, and naming formless matter as in the ancient world.
The Sumerian poem entitled Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Nether World begins with a cosmological statement like most other Sumerian poems which says:
"After heaven had been moved away from earth,
After earth had been separated from heaven,
After the name of man had been fixed,
After (the heaven-god) An carried off the heaven,
After (the air-god) Enlil carried off earth." (Kramer, 1959, 82).
Separating and naming orders (or creates) the world as also seen in Enuma Elish's opening lines. Naming creation brings it under God's control. If one in the ancient world knew the name of God or an enemy, one could control him. Magical incantation bowls are based on this. Egyptians would write the name of their enemy on a bowl or figurine, then smash it to destroy the enemies power (COS, 50; ANET, 328; ANEP, #593).
The LXX
It is interesting that the LXX used the Greek word epoihsen, "make" for arb . This is not ex nihilo creation. God is using invisible matter to make the universe. Aquila on the other hand uses the Greek word ektisen, "created" which may indicate ex nihilo creation. It is only after the LXX that ektisen, "created" took on the specialized meaning, "created" in Hellenistic times. Its basic meaning is "to cultivate the land, make habitable" (Westermann, 1994, 100).
Aramaic Texts
The Fragment-Targums and the Targum Neofiti I as seen earlier, added "perfected" along with "created." The verb "perfected" is probably from Genesis 2:2 from the word "Finished." This may indicate that Genesis 1:1 was a heading.
Jewish Literature
In Jewish writings Josephus used ektisen, "created" while Philo used the word "made" following the LXX. In Genesis Rabbah R. Huna in the name of Bar Qappara asks, "God created heaven and earth (Gen.1:1) from what? From the following: And the earth was chaos (Gen.1:2)" (Neusner, 1985, 3-4).
The Vulgate
The Latin Vulgate used the word "Created." Jerome translates, In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram. According to Jerome, in the original beginning there was nothing. Creation is distinguished by creatio activa, ex nihilo, and creatio passiva, the ordering of the world. There are two stages of creation, creatio prima, the creating of unformed matter out of nothing called materia prima, and creatio secunda, where God gives form and life to the materia prima (Muller, 1985, 85).
God
Hebrew Text
<yhla - God<yhla is plural, yet the verb arb is singular. Jewish writers say this is the plural of Majesty, but it is more likely an intensification or absolutization with the meaning of "God of gods" or "supreme God" (NIDOTTE, 1997, Vol.1, 405). The root meaning of <yhla is probably "power, strength, might." <yhla is the more general and universal name for God while Yahweh is the specific God of Israel. It may be used for apologetic purposes in Genesis one. Some Christians take the plural to refer to the trinity, but this is just the general term for God.
There are three similar words for God that probably come from the same root. They are El, Eloah, and Elohim. They are all used interchangeably. In Psalm 29:1, and 89:6 there are the sons of Elim, and in Genesis 6:2 and Job 1:6 they are the sons of Elohim. Eloah is found mainly in the book of Job (41 out of 57) and El occurs 55 times, while Elohim occurs only 4 times in dialogue. Elohim is used 2570 times in the OT. El is mainly found in poetic or archaizing texts (TDOT, Vol.1, 272).
In this first verse of Genesis "God" is unarticulated. It is thought that Elohim was originally an appellation, a title, which was changed into a proper name and therefore drops the article. Mainly in Genesis Elohim is used without the article. Other archaic words are used without the article like tehom in Genesis 1:2 (Gesenius, 1976, 402-3). This is mainly found in poetic language.
Ugaritic Texts
In Ugaritic El is the god who is head of the Canaanite pantheon and may be identified with the planet Saturn. Some see Elohim as a composite of El+Yam, but this is unlikely. The plural of El in Ugaritic is Elm. The feminine form is Elt singular, and Elht for plural. Note the addition of the "h" in the plural form. There is a rare corresponding plural Elhm (Pope, 1955, 7, TDOT, Vol.1, 271). Therefore, Elohim would just be a rare form of the masculine plural El or Elh. It may be that Elh in Job is singular and the plural is Elohim. Maybe Elh is the vocative form. Elohim is probably the plural form of El expanded with the "h" which occurs else where in Hebrew and Aramaic (Ibid, 273; Gesenius, 399).
There are several descriptive titles or epithets of El that indicate that he is the creator. El is called ab adm, "Father of man;" qn `rs, "Creator of the earth;" qny [w] `adn [i]lm, "Begetter and Lord of the gods;" and bny bnwt, "Creator of Creatures" (De Moor 1980, 171-187; Pope 1994, 47-62).
It should be noted that in the ANE there is not a clear distinction between creation and procreation. El’s wife was atrt or Asherah. They had 70 sons. Asherah is called `um ilm, "Mother of the gods" (De Moore 1980, 175). Yahweh is said to have Asherah at his right hand (Deut. 33:2; Dijkstra 1995, 43-73).
The LXX
In the LXX the word for God is qeos. It adds the article "the" before God. In John 1:1 qeos is used with the article also. This is the typical name for God, and should have the article in Greek for a proper noun.
Aramaic Texts
In the targums Yahweh is used in place of Elohim. This may be to avoid the plural form of God, or to name the specific god who created everything. Usually you have the God of _____. In the Targum Neofiti I the "Memra (word) of the Lord" created the world which may correspond to "logos" in John 1:1, but "in Christian tradition from earliest times the opening word of Genesis was understood to mean in the son (Jesus, the word)" according to Jerome (McNamara, 1992, 52).
Jewish Literature
Genesis Rabbah takes Elohim as singular which says, "In the beginning [gods] created is not written, but rather, in the beginning [God] created [in the singular]" (I,VII.1.H; Neusner, 1985, 7). It also discusses why God is the third word in the OT and not mentioned first because of modesty (I.XII).
The Heavens and the Earth
Hebrew Text
xrah taw <ymvh - The heavens and the earthHere the universe is described in terms of opposites. This is called a merismatic word pair that expresses comprehensiveness (NIDOTTE, 1997, Vol.4,160). This bipartite division of the universe was common in Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, and Ugaritic. In the Egyptian Hymn to Atum the phrase "to the height of heaven and to the breadth of earth" is used (TDOT, I:389). There seems to a chiastic structure here and the next several verses of Genesis. Heaven and earth are named, but then the reverse order is talked about. In Rabbinic literature there is debate as to what was created first, the heavens or the earth (Bowker, 1969, 102-3).
<ymvh - The heavens
The Hebrew word <ymv, "heavens" is dual in form, meaning literally "two heavens." There are several explanations for this. Some scholars take it as an abnormal plural (Stadelmann, 1970, 39). Egypt conceived of two heavens, or two skies. The heaven of day, and the heaven at night. This may have been originally behind the dual form of <ymv. Another view is that the first heaven may be everything between the earth and the firmament, or the atmosphere. The second heaven would be everything above the firmament which would be the dwelling place of God. There is also the highest heaven, called the zenith. In Ugaritic El dwells at the source of the two deeps. This could be where the heavenly and subterranean oceans meet at the horizon. The heavens are said to be stretched out over the abyss. The earth also is stretched over the abyss, or subterranean waters. I will go into more details about heaven in verse 6.
The phrase "heaven of heavens" is the superlative expression for heaven by the Hebrews meaning "the highest heaven." This was the common way they stressed something. This does not mean there are many heavens; but many ancient writers believed in a number of heavens.
In the New Testament Paul is caught up into the third heaven where God especially dwells (2 Chore. 12:2). The three heavens may be; the atmosphere below the firmament, the firmament containing the stars, and above the firmament where God dwells. The book of Enoch tells of ten heavens in detail (Charlesworth, 1983, 22). Others in Rabbinic literature say there are seven heavens (Cohen, 1975, 30).
It should be noted that the heavens are named, but not created until verses 6-8 and the earth not until verses 9-10. This is also found in other ancient literature. One example is in Enuma Elish which starts, "When above the heavens had not (yet) been named, (and) below earth had not (yet) been called by a name; (When) Apsu primeval, their begetter, Mummu, (and) Ti’amat, she who gave birth to them all, (Still) mingled their waters together" (Heidel, 1942, 18). These are negative statements whereas Genesis one is positive statements.
Ancient Near Eastern Literature
The word <ymv probably comes from the Proto-Semitic relative pronoun plus the noun, sa-maii meaning "place of water" The Assyrian name for "heavens" is sa me which they thought meant "place of the waters" (NIDOTTE, 1997, Vol.4, 160). The Egyptians pictured heaven as an ocean which the sun sailed in his boat across the sky daily.
There is one very interesting Babylonian text where heaven is divided into three regions; upper, middle, and lower heaven each made of a different precious stone (Livingstone 1986, 83).
xrah - The earth
Not only is the earth the antithesis to heaven, vertically, but earth in the sense of land is also antithesis to sea, horizontally. Earth can also mean the Underworld in certain contexts. The Underworld is said to be in the earth, or in the depths of the earth, or under the earth.
In Sumerian and Akkadian the earth can be divided three parts, the upper earth where man lives, the middle of the earth where the water god Ea ruled, and the lower earth of the underworld. This corresponds to the three-fold division of the heavens. This tripartite division of the earth is also seen in the OT. Sheol is under the water in Job 26:5. In Jonah 2:2,3 Sheol is associated with the sea. The Rabbis divided the earth into seven layers which corresponds to the seven layers of heaven. According to Genesis 1:9 the earth seems to be submerged under the waters of the deep, or mingled with the waters.
Church Fathers
Justin Martyr, a gentile, was born around 110 AD in Samaria and was martyred about 165 AD under the rule of Marcus Aurelius. Justin Martyr as seen earlier believed like Plato that matter was eternal. He quotes the LXX to show that the heavens and earth were created out of the invisible and unfurnished matter in Genesis 1:2, but not from Plato’s world of ideas (First Apology, Chapter 59; Address to the Greeks, Chapter 30). Justin defends the Christian faith by showing the antiquity of the scriptures, and that the great Greek philosophers and writers (like Plato and Homer) must have borrowed their ideas from scripture.
Tatian, an Assyrian, was a student of Justin Martyr who lived about 110-172 AD. In his old age he fell into errors maybe because of infirmities and severe asceticism. He wrote Diatessaron which is a harmony of the four gospels, and Address to the Greeks. He believed that the creation of the earth in Genesis 1:1 referred to matter.
Theophilus of Antioch the earliest Church historian lived about 115-181 AD and succeeded Ignatius. He believed that matter was created in Genesis 1:1, and not the literal earth.
Origen follows Philo who follows Plato in Timaeus by interpreting the earth and heavens in Genesis 1:1 as corporeal and incorporeal intelligible matter. Philo saw the heavens and the earth as belonging to the world of Ideas in Genesis 1:1 which was confirmed by the creation of man mentioned twice. Origen defends his view in his theology, the First Principles (II, 9,1; Van Winden 1962, 210-11).
Basil sees a literal earth and Heavens created in Genesis 1:1. He sees matter as created by God, not eternal, but he does not equate matter with the earth in Genesis 1:1-2 as Ambrose does.
Ambrose equates the creation of the earth with matter (visible substances) and the heavens with invisible substances (probably following Origen) in Genesis 1:1. A literal earth was not created in Genesis 1:1, but just the matter or elements that make up the earth (Van Winden 1962, 212). Ambrose usually follows Basil’s commentary, but differs with him on a literal earth. Ambrose differs with Greek philosophers who say matter is eternal.
Augustine states, "in the beginning God made heaven and earth, but the very earth which God made was invisible and without form before God arranged the forms of all things by ordering and distinguishing them in their places and ranks" (Against the Manichees, Book 1:5; 1991, 53). Matter was created in verse one, and it was ex nihilo. Augustine says, "God made all things from nothing. For, though all formed things were made from this matter, this matter itself was still made from absolutely nothing" (Ibid, Book 1:10, 57-8). So in Genesis 1:1 heaven is the invisible or spiritual creation, and earth the visible formless matter.
Genesis 1:2
Pre-Creation State
In verse 2 the earth is a barren wasteland and devoid of life. The word paints a picture of an arid desert. It is used in Isaiah 45. This verse seems to assume that matter was all ready here, eternal. It is similar to the state of chaos at the beginning of creation in Greek writings. The closest parallel is in Philo of Byblos. It seems a contradiction in terms for God to create chaos. Nowhere is God said to create tohu wa bohu. Verse 2 is a clear indication that there is no creation in verse 1. Darkness is also part of chaos. Darkness is not the absence of light, but like a black cloud that spreads across the sky (Psalm 18:12; TDOT, Vol. V, 245-59). Darkness also surrounds God (Psalm 97:2). There was an abode for darkness like the snow and wind. It seems also that the wind and spirit are synonymous. The wind is the very spirit or breath of God which make also the words of God, the very emanation from God.
Pictured at the beginning of creation is the earth mingled with (or covered over by) the watery abyss. When the flood waters of the Nile came dirt was mingled with the waters, so that when the flood retreated new soil was left behind to fertilize their fields. Both sweet water and bitter salt water were also mixed together. It is desolate of life like a desert from the Hebrew word tohu. The watery abyss or primeval chaos was shrouded in the darkness of thick clouds. A mighty wind of God blows, or swirls across the face of the waters clearing away the clouds so God can command the light of dawn to shine forth and spread across the sky.
Probably the closest cosmology to the Bible is the Phoenicians. Philo of Byblos says, "He (Sanchuniathon) posits as the source of the universe a dark and windy gas, or a stream of dark gas, and turbid, gloomy chaos. These things were unbound and for the ages were without limit" (Attridge and Oden 1981, 37).
And the Earth Was
Hebrew Text
htyh xrahw - And the earth wasThe Hebrew verb htyh means "was" not "became" in this context (Waltke 1974, 18-36). There is no room for the gap theory here. The earth did not become waste and void. No ancient translation or commentary that I know of has this meaning. It is describing the state or condition of the earth before creation. The question of where this pre-creation state came from, is not answered. The LXX takes a different view that imbibes the platonic world of ideas.
Desolate and Lifeless
Hebrew Text
whbw wht - Desolate and lifelessThis pair of words appears three times in the OT, Gen.1:2, Isa.34:11, and Jer.4:23. It appears as a juxtaposed phrase in Gen.1:2 and Jer.4:23, and as a parallel word pair in Isa.34:11 (Tsumura, 1989, 23). This phrase seems to be used mostly around the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Isaiah 34:11 says, "And He (God) shall spread over it (Edom) the line of desolation (tohu) and the plum stones of barrenness (bohu; my own translation). This is a return to chaos before creation.
Jeremiah 4:23 says, "I (Jeremiah) looked on the earth and behold, (it was) a dark desert and void of life, and (I looked upwards) to the heavens, and there was no light" (my own translation). This seems to be a return to chaos before the world was ordered. There is a chiastic structure here in Jeremiah 4:23 and in Genesis 1:2 as well, tohu wabohu//hosek, and earth = abyss.
Ugaritic Texts
There is an interesting Ugaritic phrase tu-a-bi-(u?) that may be the same as the Hebrew tohu wa bohu. In one of the polyglot vocabularies tu-a-bi-(u) is equivalent to the Akkadian na-bal-ku-tum and Hurrian tap-su-hu-(u)m-me (RS 20.123:II:23; Tsumura, 1989, 23). The Akkadian phrase occurs twice in the Atr-Hasis Epic. The earth’s womb is said to be na-bal-ku-tum or barren (out of order). It is parallel with the phrase "no plants growing" (Lambert and Millard, 1969, 108:49, 110:59). It is also used for the older phrase u-ul ul-da which clearly means barren, parallel to the phrase "no plants were growing" (Ibid, 78:4).
The LXX
h de gh hn aoratos kai akataskeuastos - But the earth was invisible and unformed
The LXX translates tohu wa bohu as aoratos kai akataskeuastos which means "invisible and unformed." This same word aoratos "invisible" is similar to Hebrew 11:3 ek fainomenwn, meaning "out of unseen things" the world was created. This seems to be related to the platonic ides that the visible world came from the invisible world including the idea of logos.
Another possibility is the way Josephus may have understood it that the earth was covered with water and thick clouds and therefore could not be seen (LCL, 1930, 15).
Aramaic Texts
aynqwrw aydx twh auraw - Now the earth was desolate and empty
The above Aramaic is from the official Jewish targum, the Targum Onkelos (Sperber, 1959, 1; Translation by Grossfeld, 1988, 42).
The Targum Neofiti I interprets wht as the absence of faunal life, and whb the absence of floral life. It translates, "And the earth was waste and unformed, desolate of man and beast, empty of plant cultivation and of trees" (McNamara, 1992, 52). The earth was not a primeval chaos, but just void of life (Anderson, 1990, 23).
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan says, "The earth was without form and void, desolate of people and empty of all animals" (Maher, 1992, 16).
The Fragment-Targums states, "And the earth was unformed and void, and desolate of people and empty of all work" (Klein, 1980, 3).
Jewish Literature
In 1 Enoch 21:1 it describes this unformed chaos. It says:
And I came to an empty place. And I saw (there) neither a heaven above nor an earth below, but a chaotic and terrible place. And I saw seven stars of heaven bound together in it, like great mountains, and burning with fire.These are among the stars of heaven which have transgressed the commandments of the Lord and are bound in this place until the completion of ten million years, (according) to the number of their sins (Charlesworth, 1983, 24).
2 Enoch has very similar view which says:
Before anything existed at all, from the very beginning, whatever is I created from non-being, and from the invisible things into the visible.Before any visible things had come into existence, and the light had not yet opened up, I, in the midst of the light, moved around in the invisible things, like one of them, as the sun moves around from east to west and from west to east. But the sun has rest; yet I did not find rest, because everything was not yet created. And I thought up the idea of establishing a foundation, to create a visible creation (Charlesworth, 1983, 143).
It seems from 2 Enoch that the invisible things are eternal with God. God could not rest until he created. Note that "non-being" does not mean ex nihilo, but the invisible things (Ibid, 142,n,f).
Josephus writes, tauths d’ up’ oyin ouk ercomenhs, alla baqei men kruptomenhs, meaning " The earth had not come into sight, but was hidden in the thick darkness" (LCL, 1930, 15). This seems similar to the LXX reasoning since darkness covered the deep, the earth must be invisible, but Josephus goes a step further to show that the earth is alone in darkness (Franxman, 1979, 39). There is no mention of waters, may be to avoid the idea of Greek chaos.
Philo in On The Creation (29) writes:
First, then, the Maker made an incorporeal heaven, and an invisible earth, and the essential form of air and void. To the one he gave the name of Darkness, since the air when left to itself, is black. The other he named abyss, for the void is a region of immensity and vast depths. Next (He made) the incorporeal essence of water and of life-breath and, to crown all, of light (LCL, 1929, 23).
According to Philo whbw wht are "the essential form of air and void." The air is called "Darkness" and the void is called the "abyss." Wolfson in his chapter, Creation and Structure of the World, explains the platonic ideas behind Philo’s view of creation (1947, 295-324). Runia gives an even more detailed comparison of Philo to Plato in his book entitled Philo of Alexandria and the Timaeus of Plato (1986).
According to the Rabbis wht was thought to be "a green line which encompasses the whole world (the horizon line) from which darkness issued," and whb "denotes the slime covered stones sunk in the depths from which water issued" (Cohen 1975, 33; Epstein, 1935, 63-4; Hagigah 12a).
Greek Literature
Genesis 1:9 seems to indicate that the earth was under (or mingled in) water. How can the earth be described as a desert when covered by water? Maybe wht refers to the sandy desert beach just below the water, and whb to the barrenness of life along the shore just under the water. A better explanation is that the ocean is described as a barren desert. One could compare the desert dunes to the waves of the sea. No plants or trees are growing there.
Homer several times describes the sea as barren. He writes "the barren sea" or "the desolate sea" (Iliad, I. 316; XV. 27; Odyssey, II. 370). The Greek word is atrugetos (L&S, Vol. 1, 273). In Hesiod’s Theogony it is translated "the unfruitful sea" (X. 730; LCL, 133).
Hebrew Text
wht - Desolation
In other passages where wht occurs alone, it is used to describe a desert void of life. See Deut. 32:10, Job 8:18, 12:24, Psalm 107:40.
Deuteronomy 32:10 says, "In the desert land he found him, in a barren (wht) and howling waste" (NIV). This verse clearly indicates the meaning of wht as "desert," or "wasteland."
In Job 26:7 God stretches the northern sky over the desert void (wht) and hangs, or suspends the earth over the abyss (hmylb, literally, "not anything" or "nothing"- BDB, 1980, 116a) so that there is no more empty space, or even better, suspends out the earth to completely cover over the abyss (Holladay, 1971, 40-41). wht describes desert wasteland, and <wht the watery abyss.
In Isaiah 45:18, God says, "He did not create it (earth) a desert or wasteland wht. wht is also in parallel with ;vj meaning "darkness" as in Genesis 1:2. This shows that God did not start creating until verse three of Genesis one.
Ugaritic Texts
The Ugaritic cognate word thw can be helpful in understanding the Hebrew term wht. KTU 1.5:I:14-16 says, lbim. thw. hm. brly. anhr. bym which means, "the lions in/of the desert(s) or a desire of the dolphin(?) in the sea" (Tsumura, 1989, 18). It seems that thw and ym make a merismatic pair expressing comprehensiveness (Ibid, 19). This seems to also be the case in Genesis 1:2 with wht and <wht.
whb - Lifelessness
Westermann thinks whb is added for alliteration. It does seem to add poetic force. Speiser describes it as "an excellent example of hendiadys" (Westermann, 1994, 103). Hendiadys is a figure of speech where two words are connected by a conjunction to express a single idea (Morris, 1979, 615). It seems that whbw wht is a common ANE phrase that was used to emphasize "barrenness."
Some have suggested that the term whb comes from the Phoenician divine name Baau who is the goddess of night. Whb is probably similar to the Arabic bahiya meaning "to be empty" (BDB). It is emptiness in the sense of void of life, barrenness. All probably come from the same root word bhw (Tsumura, 1989, 22).
Darkness
Hebrew Text
;vj - DarknessDarkness was not the absence of light in ancient times. It is associated with thick black clouds (TDOT, 5:245-259). God inscribed a circle upon the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness. This circle is the horizon. Darkness has its own abode or storehouse like the light, snow, and hail. Darkness was a created matter (Isa. 45:7), but creation may mean it was ordered, named, and subjugated to God’s control. In Genesis 1:2 darkness covers the deep like thick black clouds. It is not just the absence of light. Did the absence of light cover the deep? No! In Genesis darkness is not abolished, but is subjugated to God’s control by separating it and naming it.
In Job 26:10 God inscribes a circle (gj) upon the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness. This boundary circle is the horizon. This circle held the heavens and earth together. A rip in this would flood the world with water. It is at the horizon where the light of dawn comes forth.
In Job 38:19 God asks Job, "What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings" (NIV)? Job does not know the abode or the way of the light or the darkness. He has not entered the storehouse of the snow or hail (verse 22). Darkness is considered a substance that has its own house. Today we define darkness as the absence of light.
Psalm 18:11 says, "He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him-the dark rain clouds of the sky" (NIV). Here "darkness" is defined as "dark rain clouds." It seems that the substance of darkness is thick dark clouds. It is the dark clouds that cause or bring darkness.
Psalm 97:2 (also Job 22:14) says, "Clouds and thick darkness surround him (God)" (NIV). Darkness is like a tent or veil that shrouds the glory of God like the tabernacle. Darkness is a characteristic of theophanies.
Ancient Near Eastern Literature
According to the Babylonians the light of the moon kept the darkness of night from turning into the darkness of the netherworld where demons dominate especially when there was an eclipse or new moon.
In Egypt the Apophis is the dragon of darkness that is defeated by Re each morning. Apophis is said to swallow the sun when there is a solar eclipse. There is a constant struggle between light and darkness. In the Hymn to the Aton "Darkness is a shroud" which the sun, Aton drives away (ANET, 1969, 370).
Jewish Literature
Philo states, "To one he gave the name Darkness since the air when left to itself, is black" (On The Creation, 29; LCL, Vol. 1, 23). Here wht is translated as air and given the name Darkness.
In Genesis Rabbah the future is seen is this verse. According to R. Judah the darkness upon the deep refers to the generations of Enosh because their works are in the dark (Isa. 29:15; Neusner, 23). This may reflect the Fragment-Targum translation. R. Simeon states, "Darkness refers to Greece which clouded the vision of the Israelites through its decrees" (Neusner, 24).
The Deep
Hebrew Text
<wht - The DeepThe Deep is a watery abyss. There is no monster (Tiamat). There is no battle (theomacy). It is demythologized.
At the beginning there was the preexistence of a watery abyss, a primordial ocean where the bitter and sweet waters mingled together. The bitter water was the salt water of the ocean while the sweet water was rain, springs, and river waters. These waters were separated on day two to form a heavenly ocean and earthly ocean which is part of the subterranean ocean. In Ugaritic El’s abode is at the source of the two rivers, or oceans which might be the source of the bitter and sweet waters (Herdner 1963, 4:iv, 21-24) or more likely the heavenly ocean and the subterranean ocean that meet at the horizon. In the Bible "living water" would be "sweet or fresh non-salty water," while dead or bitter waters, like the Dead Sea is salty water. Many times the sea is used in parallel with the deep in poetic passages. The ancients may see the sea and deep as part of the same ocean which extended under the earth. This seems clear from the cycle in Ecclesiastes 1:7. The rocks of the earth sweeten the ocean water and the clouds filter the salt water.
In the OT <wht is the subterranean ocean where springs well up, rivers flow, and floods burst forth. They did not view rivers as water from melted snow, nor floods from torrential rains, but from the deep subterranean ocean. This is clearly seen in Noah’s Flood where the fountains of the deep burst forth. In the vassal-treaties of Esarhaddon it says, "may a flood, an irresistible deluge, rise from the bowels of the earth and devastate you" (ANET, 472).
In Hebrew <wht can appear in the plural form as in Isaiah 63:13, and Psalm 106:9. <wht never occurs as a third part of the universe as heaven/earth/sea. Only <y, sea occurs. <y corresponds to the Akkadian Apsu and Tiamat. <wht refers to the subterranean waters like the Babylonian Apsu, but since <wht is under or in the earth, it is considered part of the earth. <wht is not a person or god because it says, "face of the deep" indicating a physical place. <wht is used mostly in poetical passages as seen below.
Many scholars today think Habakkuk 3 contains imagery of divine conflict with the dragon and the sea as in Ugaritic literature (Tsumura, 1988, 25). Baal, rider of the clouds (his chariots), fights with the Yam-Sea and wins (KTU 1.2 III: Gibson, 1977, 37). Baal’s arrows are lightning like God’s arrows in Habakkuk 3:11 (See also Psalm 29; Amos 7:4; Hillers, 1964, 221-5). In Genesis 1:2 there is no conflict or battle between God and Tiamat or Yam (Tsumura, 1989, 62-65).
Sumerian Literature
In Sumerian thought the sea was all one with no distinction between salt and sweet water. Later Tiamat came to represent the salt sea while Apsu came to represent the sweet water. (see Kramer, 1959, 77). The Sumerians believed the sea fed the rivers, not the mountains (Kramer 1944, 27-28).
Akkadian Literature
In Akkadian the cognate for <wht is tiamtum which is used for ocean and a god. In Atra-Hasis six times the phrase, nahbalu tiamtim, meaning "the bar or bolt of the sea" occurs (rev. i 6,10, ii 4,11,18,34). This would be at the horizon which is the bond between heaven and earth. If there is a rip, waters will flood the earth. It stops the waters from mixing again. Taiamtum is also used in parallel with the word "sea." Marduk defeats Tiamat, cuts her in half, from one half the heavens are made, the other half the earth is made.
In Enuma Elish "When above the Heavens had not (yet) been named" (Tablet 1:1) Apsu (sweet water, male god) and Tiamat (salt water, female god) "mingled their waters together" (Tablet 1:5; Heidel, 1942, 18). It should be noted that there is no monster to slay in Genesis to form the heavens as Marduk did by killing Tiamat. Heidel does a good job of comparing Enuma Elish with Genesis. Both have primeval watery chaos, primeval darkness, and light before luminaries (Heidel, 97-102).
Ugaritic Literature
The Ugaritic cognate for <wht is thm which sometimes ends with a feminine ending t. It appears once as a proper noun that is part of a compound divine name Heaven and Ocean, smm-w-thm (KTU, 1.100:1). It is used in parallel with yam-sea. It is also used in the dual form especially describing El’s abode (Herdner 1963, 4:iv, 21-24).
There is much debate on the location of El’s abode. The following four lines in Ugaritic repeatedly give a description of El’s abode, ëm ëil mbk nhrm qrb ëapq thmtm tgly zd ëil wtb’u qrs mlk ëab snm (CTA 4:iv, 21-24) which I translate as: Toward El at the source of the two rivers, amidst the springs of the two oceans (thm); she penetrated the heights of El, and entered the hillside of the king, the father of years. The source of life-giving water was from the gods in paradise, not from the stagnant underworld. El’s mountain seems to reach up to connect earth and heaven, and therefore is able to supply water to the heavenly and earthly oceans.
A cylinder seal of white stone discovered at Mari dates back to around 2350-2150 BC. (Keel 1978, 390). On this seal is a picture of a god sitting on a mountain with two rivers flowing out of it. Keel believes that this god could be the Canaanite god El (Ibid, 47). The god Ea from Mesopotamia sits enthroned "in the midst of the mouth of the two rivers" (Ibid, 48). Another cylinder seal from Ur pictures the god Ea seated in his inner chamber surrounded by water. From his arms flow two rivers. To the right the sun god ascends up a mountain to the gate of heaven where Ea is (Ibid, 390). This is very similar to the description of El’s abode.
When one compares El’s abode with Mot’s underworld abode one will discover many differences (CTA 4:viii, 11-14). Mot’s abode is clearly below the earth, while El’s abode seems to be above the earth. El’s abode is also the place where the assembly of El meets. This probably refers to the stars of heaven which are thought to be gods (CTA 10: I, 3-5).
Phoenician Literature
Probably the closest cosmology to the Bible is the Phoenicians. Philo of Byblos was a Phoenician scholar who was born about 64 AD. He reworks ancient Phoenician myths into the Hellenistic spirit by demythologizing them (Loewenstamm 1980 391). Traditional gods are replaced by physical forces that represent them to bring Greek science in harmony with ancient Phoenician tradition. The Church historian Eusebius preserves in his book Preparation of the Gospel the most important quotations from Philo’s book Phoenician History (For a detailed commentary see Baumgarten 1981).
Philo of Byblos in Phoenician History says, "He (Sanchuniathon) posits as the source of the universe a dark and windy gas, or a stream of dark gas, and turbid, gloomy chaos. These things were unbound and for ages were without limit" (Attridge and Oden, 1981, 37). Note that there is no god who created this chaos. This watery chaos is "the equivalent of the Tehom covered by darkness in Genesis 1:2 (Baumgarten, 106).
Greek Literature
To translate <wht the LXX usually uses abussos which means "bottomless, unfathomed" (L&S, Vol. 1, 4). The LXX never uses abussos to translate the Hebrew sheol, the abode of the dead. In Classical Greek abussos is always an adjective. Herodotus writes that the source of the Nile is unfathomed (Book 2.28). He says, "Psammethichus king of Egypt proved by experiment: for he had a rope woven of many thousand fathoms’ length and let down into the spring, but he could not reach the bottom (LCL, 1920, Vol. 1, 305).
Homer speaks of a watery beginning of the gods. In Iliad 14:200-4 Homer writes, "For I am faring to visit the limits of the all-nurturing earth, and Oceanus, from whom the gods are sprung (Zeus) thrust Cronos down to dwell beneath earth and the unresting (or unfruitful) sea" (LCL 171, 81). Again in the same book Homer writes (line 245) "even the streams of the river Oceanus, from whom they (the gods) all are sprung" (Ibid, 85).
Hesiod in his Theogony writes that chaos arose before the creation of the earth. Brown translates:
First of all, Void (Chaos) came into being, next broad-bosomed Earth. Out of Void came darkness and black night, and out of Night came light and Day.Earth first produced starry Sky, equal in size with herself, to cover her on all sides (to be the solid and eternal home of the blessed gods; (II:116-128; LCL, 1953, 56).
In Greek mythology Chaos was the original condition of the universe before creation. "Chaos was a dark formless void of infinite size and ungovernable fury" (Wilson, 1976, Vol. 4, 328).
Orphic cosmogony probably drew on Hesiod’s Theogony. Apollonius Rodius relates how Orpheus sang a song "how the earth, heaven and sea, which were formed joined together in one form, were separated from each other after deadly strife" (Argonautica I. 494; LCL, 1979, 39).
Aristophanes states, "There was Chaos (Void) first, and Night, dark Erebos (Darkness) and wide Tartaros; there was no earth, nor air, nor sky, but Night, she of dark wings, bore first of all a wind-egg, nesting in the limitless bosom of Erebos" (Birds, 688-702; LCL, 1979, 41).
Hermetica contains various Greek and Latin writings of religious and philosophical teachings that are attributed to the Egyptian sage, Hermes Trismegistus complied around the 2nd century AD. Libellvs I says, "Earth and water remained in their own place, mingled together-but they were kept in motion, by reason of the breath-like Word which moved upon the face of the water" (Scott 1993, 119). Libellvs III states, "There was darkness in the deep, and water without form; and there was a subtle breath, intelligent, which permeated the things in Chaos with divine power. Then when all was yet undistinguished and unwrought, there was shed forth holy light; and the elements came into being" (Ibid, 147).
New Testament
The NT in contrast to the LXX uses abussos for the abode of the dead (Romans 10:7), the abode of demons (Luke 8:31), the abode of Antichrist (Rev. 11:7, 17:8), the abode of Abaddon, the angle of the underworld (Rev. 9:11), and the dungeon where the devil is bound for 1,000 years (Rev. 20:3; A&G, 1957, 2).
In the NT usually Hades is used for the place of the dead, tartarus is used for the prison house of angels, and the abyss in the book of Revelations is used for the bottomless pit which imprisons fallen angels.
Jewish Literature
In the book of Enoch there is a graphic description of the abyss which is the prison house for fallen angels. "The place had a cleavage (that extended) to the last sea, pouring out great pillars of fire; neither its extent nor its magnitude could I see nor was I able to estimate" (21:7; Charlesworth, 1983, 24).
Philo describes the abyss as "the void is a region of immensity and vast depths" (On The Creation, 29; LCL, 1929, Vol. 1, 23).
It seems that the sea and the deep, <wht are connected. Rivers run into the ocean and the ocean returns under the earth to the rivers. The Targum of Ecclesiastes states, "All the rivers and streams of water go and flow into the waters of the ocean which surround the world like a ring, and the ocean is not full, and to the place where the streams go and flow there they go again through the channels of the sea" (Glossfeld, 1973, 503).
And a Mighty Wind
Hebrew Text
Myhla jwrw - and a mighty windThe Hebrew word hwr can mean "breath, wind, or spirit" (BDB, 924). Its most basic meaning is "blowing, air in motion, wind" (NIDOTTE, 3:1073). To the ancient Hebrews breath, wind, and spirit were the same (Gaster, 1969, 5). There is no article in the Hebrew which indicates "wind" not "The Spirit" as well as the following Hebrew participle tpjrm denoting motion. It is interesting to note that the Hebrew and Akkadian word for "day" mwy and umum, respectively, can mean "wind" (Hildegard and Lewy, 1943, 5). The word <yhla can also be used as a superlative describing the wind, therefore meaning "a mighty wind" or "raging storm." Moscati and Freeman argue against taking it as an elative because of the context (1947, 305-10; 1996, 9-13). The only other exact Hebrew phrase with vav mentioned in the Masorah is in 2 Chronicles 24:20 where the Spirit of God comes upon Zechariah (Kelley, Mynatt, and Crawford, 1998, 113). There are six other references listed, Gen. 41:38, Ex. 31:3;35:31; Num. 24:2; Ezek. 11:24; and 2 Chr. 15:1. Psalm 33:6 says, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth" (NIV). Here "word" and "breath" are used in parallel. Job 26:13 states, "By his breath the skies became fair" (NIV). Clearly, in this passage the wind which is considered God’s breath is blowing the clouds away causing fair skies.
LXX Text
pneuma qeou - a wind from God
The LXX has translated the Hebrew phase as pneuma qeou with no article as the Hebrew which seems to indicate that "a wind from God" was meant (Wevers, 1993, 2).
AramaicTexts
ywy mdq nm ajwrw - and the wind from before Yahweh
Grossfeld in his notes states that ajwr means "wind" not "spirit" even though it has an article in the Targum Onqelos (1988, 42).
In the Targum Neofiti I McNamara translates, "and a spirit of mercy from before the Lord was blowing over the surface of the waters" (1992, 52).
In the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Maher translates, "and a merciful wind from before God was blowing over the surface of the water" (1992, 16). This same phase "merciful wind" occurs in Genesis 8:1 to dry the flood waters.
In the Fragment-Targums Klein translates, "and a merciful wind from before the Lord was blowing over the surface of the waters" (1980, 3).
The Targums seem to believe by their translation that "a wind from the Lord was blowing" not the "Spirit of God" moving.
Jewish Literature
Josephus in Jewish Antiquities writes, pneumatos d’ authn anwqev epiqeonyos, meaning "a wind (or breath) from above was moving over it." Framxman notes, "The alteration of the ruah `elohim to a ëbreath from above (anothen)’ cannot help call to mind the similar effort employed by the Targumim to interpret this 'breath' as something a bit apart and distinct from God himself" (1979, 39).
Philo renders it "life-breath" and comments, "The one he entitles the 'breath of God', because breath is most life-giving, and of life God is the author" (On The Creation, 30; LCL, 23).
In Genesis Rabbah Rabban Gamaliel understands ruah as "wind" referring to Amos 4:13 (I.IX; Neusner, 1985, 13). R. Judah b. R. Simon understands it in light of Genesis 8:1 "And God made a wind pass over the earth" (Ibid, 23).
The Babylonian Talmud in Hagigah 12a translates, "And the wind of God hovered over the face of the waters" (Epstein, 1935, 63)
Was Blowing Upon the Surface of the Waters
Hebrew Text
mymh ynp-lu tpjrm - was blowing upon the surface of the watersHebrew participle tpjrm, indicates continuous action. The root word pjr occurs only two other times in the OT (Deut. 32:11, and Jer. 23:9).
Deuteronomy 32:11 says, "like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers (pjr) over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions" (NIV). There is some debate whether pjr means brooding, hovering, soaring, or violent flapping in this verse. This is the same verb form as in Genesis 1:2, and both are describing the creative activity of the spirit. Some have suggested that the spirit is like a bird brooding over the world egg from which the earth hatched. Gaster sees here the ancient idea of the wind-bird where the wind is described as a bird-god (1969, 5). The wind in the OT is sometimes described as having wings (2 Sam. 22:11; Psa. 18:11, 104:3; Hos. 4:19).
Jeremiah 23:9 says, "My heart is broken within me; all my bones tremble. I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine" (NIV). Here pjr clearly means shake or tremble.
Stadelmann concludes, "The meaning of the verb rhp is the same in three places in which it occurs, and it indicates in all cases violent, not gentle motion" (1970, 15).
Ugaritic Literature
The cognate word for pjr in Ugaritic is rhp. It occurs in Aqhat which says, "above him eagles hovered, a flock of hawks looked down, [Among] the eagles Anat hovered" (KTU 1.18 IV.31-2; Gibson, 113; COS, 350).
In the Baal-Yam Cycle it seems that Baal uses the winds to defeat the sea. It says, "You’ll whirl in Ba’lu hand, like a hawk in his fingers. Scatter (him) O Mighty [BA’lu]" (COs, 249, KTU 1.2).
Akkadian Literature
In the Disputation Between Bird and Fish it says:
Then came Bird, lion-faced, and with an eagle’s talons,
Winging towards its nest. It stops in mid-flight;
Like a hurricane whirling in the midst of heaven, it circles in the sky;
Bird, looking about for its nest spreads open wings and legs. (COs 1997, 583).
Here the bird soaring around is described as "a hurricane whirling." It is not a gentle breeze.
In the Legend of Adapa, Adapa was mad at the South wind for capsizing his boat and said, "I will break thy wi[ng]! Just as he had said (this) with his mouth, The wing of the sou[th Wi]nd was broken. For seven days The [south win]d blew not upon the land" (ANET, 101).
In Enuma Elish Marduk uses the winds to help him defeat the monster Tiamat. It says, "He brought forth Imhullu the Evil Wind, the Whirlwind, the Hurricane, The Fourfold Wind, the Sevenfold Wind, the Cyclone, the Matchless Wind; Then he sent forth the winds he had brought forth, the seven of them" (ANET, 66).
Jewish Literature
Genesis Rabbah says, "The spirit of God blew is not what is written, but rather, The spirit of God hovered like a bird which is flying about and flapping its wings, and the wings barely touch [the nest]" (II.IV.4.E; Neusner, 35).
Tertullian lived from 145 to 220 AD. Later in life he became a Montanist. His writing Against Hermogenes is written against the view that matter is eternal. God did not use pre-existent matter to create the world (Roberts and Donaldson 1981, Vol.3, 477-502). He also says that the word "earth" does not mean "matter" (Ibid., 490-1).
Basil follows the LXX saying the earth was invisible for which he gives two reasons. First, the earth was submerged under water and therefore could not be seen. Second, light had not been created so the earth lying in darkness could not be seen. Darkness was unlighted air (1963, 22). He views a literal earth that was created but submerged contrary to Ambrose.
Basil sees the Holy Spirit of God stirring above the waters with warm and fostering care like a bird brooding over its eggs (Ibid., 31).
Ambrose uses the theory of atoms to explain the matter called "earth" in Genesis 1:1-2. Greek philosophy used similar terms to "invisible" and "unformed" to describe matter (aneideos, amorfos, apoios; Van Winden, 208).
Augustine concludes, "Hence, all these expressions, whether heaven and earth, or the earth invisible and without order, and the abyss with darkness, or the water over which was borne the Spirit of God, are names for unformed matter" (Against the Manichees, Book 1:12; 1991, 60).
Jerome in Hebrew Questions on Genesis states, "In place of what is written in our codices as moved, the Hebrew has merefeth, which we can render as was brooding over or was keeping warm, in the likeness of a bird giving life to its eggs with warmth" (Hayward, 1995, 30).
Genesis 1:3-5 DAY 1
Let There Be Daylight
Hebrew Text
rwa yhy - Let there be daylight
Another important concept in understanding the ANE context is the separation of daylight from sunlight. In the ancient world the light of dawn was different than the direct light of the sun. Daylight occurs an hour to two hours before the sun rises, and continues for an hour or more after the sun sets. In this pre-scientific age daylight was not the result of the sun light. When this is clearly understood many verses of the Bible, and the creation of the sun on day four fall into place. Aalen has an excellent article about light in TDOT (Vol. 1, 147-67).
Another interesting phrase that ties in here is "the spreading out of the heavens." Daylight spreads across the sky from East to West, as well as darkness spreads across the sky after sunset. Joel 2:2 says, "Like dawn spreading across the mountains" (NIV). This fiery red sunrise spreading across the mountains, pictures the coming judgment. It is described as a thin veil in Isaiah 40:22. The heavens are also said to be rolled out as a scroll (Isaiah 34:4; Revelation 6:14).
The picture described here in Genesis 1:3 is the dawning of creation like the dawning of a new day. Job 38:14 describes it as a seal pressed on the clay. The formless images in the darkness take shape in the light of day. This verse has nothing to do with a potter’s wheel or the earth’s rotation. In the ancient world each new day was a new creation. In Egypt the sun was reborn each day. There are several OT passages that indicate the difference between daylight and sunlight.
Ecclesiastes 12:2 states, "before the sun and the light (rwa) and the moon and the stars grow dark" (NIV). Here the sun is distinct from rwa, daylight.
Isaiah 30:26 proclaims, "The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days" (NIV). Note the three types of light. In ancients times they did not realize that moon light was reflected sunlight.
Daylight is known for its "brightness" and is nowhere used to describe the sun, while the sun is known for its "heat." In Exodus 16:21 it says, "Each morning everyone gathered as much as he needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away" (NIV).
The Hebrew word rwa is explicitly used in connection with dawn while there is no mention of the sun at all. There seems to be a period of time between dawn and when the sun rises as seen in Genesis 19:15-23. Lot has time to flee to Zoar before the sun rises and the city of Sodom is destroyed.
According to Aalen "In Job 38:4ff., the primeval morning is represented as the beginning of the creation of the world" (TDOT, Vol. 1, 152). There is no mention of the sun in this context of morning creation.
In Job 3:9-10 dawn is compared to the birth from the womb. It says, "May its morning stars become dark; may it wait for daylight in vain and not see the first rays of dawn, for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me" (NIV). There is no mention of the sun. The morning star is the planet Venus which heralds the dawn (Isa 14:12). The birds sing at dawn and may have been equated with the morning stars in ancient times (Job 38:7).
Psalm 104 is a creation poem that seems to parallel Genesis one. The light mentioned in verse two is different than the sun and moon which are not mentioned unto verse nineteen. Verse two says, "He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent" (NIV).
In Psalm 139:9-12 the dawn has wings, and its light in contrast to darkness is separate from the sun. The sun is not mentioned at all. It says, "If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even your hand will guide me, the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you" (NIV). Wakely comments on the "wings of dawn" by saying it is "a poetic description of the first rays of dawn rapidly fanning out to the far horizon" (NIDOTTE, Vol.4, 88).
In John 1:4-9 which seems to be a midrash of Genesis one, Jesus is seen as the light "which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (KJV).
In the NT in the Book of Revelations (21:23) the new heavens and new earth will not need the sun or the moon to shine for the glory of God will give light. This seems to assume a difference in daylight and sunlight,
Skinner comments, "The thought of light as the first creation, naturally suggested by the phenomenon of dawn, appears in several cosmogonies" (1910, 19). We want to look at some of these.
Sumerian Literature
The Sumerain god of the air is Enlil. Aalen comments, "The bright-eyed god of the air, father of the gods, and creator-god, separated heaven and earth. He causes the day to appear. His light 'rises up,' he 'makes his emblems bright'(TDOT, 1:149). The light of Enlil, daylight, is different from the sunlight and moonlight.
In text NBC 11108 it describes the pre-creation period. It says, "The moon did not sh[ine,] darkness spread; Heaven showed its shining face in Dagan[=heavenly dwelling], (Clifford 1994, 28).
In the poem Praise to the Pickax, it states, "To separate earth from heaven he (Enlil) hastened. To make light shine in Uzumua, He bound the pillar (of heaven and Earth) in Duranki. He worked with the pickax: the light of the sun came out" (Ibid, 31). It seems that daylight and sunlight are different here. Enlil has to poke a hole in the horizon with a pickax for the sun to come out, while the axis of heaven is set for daylight to shine.
Akkadian Literature
Enuma Elish
Heidel compares Enuma Elish to Genesis, and states, "Both accounts refer to the existence of light and to the alternation of day and night before the creation of the heavenly bodies" (1942, 101). Day and night are mentioned in line 38, and the brightness of the light of Apsu in line 68 before the sun and moon are created.
Egyptian Literature
In the Hermopolitan story of creation there are eight primeval gods of which two represent darkness are said to create light. In other stories the Primeval Ocean, Nun, is "the water that made the light" (Ringgren, 1969, 141-2). Kuk is said to bring "the light and the sunrise into being" (Ibid). It seems that light came out of a watery darkness as in Genesis one.
Coffin Texts, Spell 334 states, "When they behold Shu (Air-god) bearing the light.When Shu arises, father of the gods, river around him is ablaze with light. As I carry yonder sky that I may steady her brightness" (Ibid, 144). Clark states, "Shu is the dazzling light of an Oriental morning" (Ibid, n.3).
Ringgrens comments, "this combination of Shu with light implies that light is not necessarily bound up with the sun (or the moon) as its source, but it is conceived as something that fills the air between the earth and the sky" (1969, 144).
In the accession of Amen-hotep II it says, "When the next morning dawned The sun disk shone forth, The sky became bright," Frankfort sees three events here; the first light of dawn, the spreading of light across the sky, and finally the sun rises (Ibid, 149; Kingship and the Gods 1948, 148).
After Re, the sun-god rose to prominence all light is seen as coming from the sun. Each morning Re must defeat of Apophis (darkness) so light can spread over the world. Re is reborn each morning.
Ugaritic Literature
In Ugaritic texts Dawn and Dusk are mentioned as the first sons of the creator-god, El. Daylight seems to be separate from sunlight. Gibson translates, Look, [Gupn] and Ugar, the daylight [is veiled] in obscurity" (CTA 4,vii,54-55).
There is a partial story about the birth of Dawn, shr and Dusk, slm. El sees two women by the seashore. He kills a bird and roasts it on the fire for them. He then seduces the two women who become pregnant and give birth to two males Dawn and Dusk who are called "The gracious gods, cleavers of the sea, children of the sea" (Gibson, 1978, 126; UT 52:61-2; CTA 23; KTU 1.23). According to Gibson the light of dawn and dusk comes from the sea. They cut a hole in the sea so light can come out; however, Pardee translates ym as "day" and not "sea" (For full translation and notes see COS, 1.87.60). I would translate agzrym bn ym as "dividers of the day, sons of the day." In Genesis one God does the dividing between light and darkness.
Greek Literature
In ancient Greek literature dawn is a goddess called Eos. The light of dawn is distinct from sunlight. Homer describes Dawn as "saffron-robed (krokopeplos, Iliad viii,1), "rose fingered" (ërododaktulos, Iliad i,477), "beautiful" (kalh, Iliad ix 708), "fair-tressed" (euplokamos, Odyssey v,390; McKay 1970, 460).
In the Odyssey book 23:240-46 it says: