The book of Genesis received its Hebrew title bereshit from the first phrase of its first line, in some versions translated "in the beginning." Indeed, Genesis begins at the very beginning. While the text describes how the world came into being, it simply assumes the existence of God with no explanation of where he came from. The reference to God used in this account of creation is Elohim. It is Israel's most neutral and general way of referring to God, and suggests a powerful and kingly divine being.
Ancient texts can be difficult to interpret, either for linguistic or cultural reasons. This is evident, for example, when we try to understand this first verse of Genesis. It can be translated in two ways, both of which are linguistically correct. The first option, "In the beginning God created heaven and earth," implies that the writer was interested in positing an absolute beginning to the world. The second option, "When God began to create heaven and earth, the earth was untamed and shapeless," suggests that the writer was more interested in the condition of the world when God started his creating work, rather than in absolute beginnings.
The issue might seem of little significance, but it bears directly on the question of whether God created the world out of nothing, creatio ex nihilo, or whether there was an already-existing substance that God shaped into a structured world. The doctrine of creation from nothing, if not found here, is found for the first time in 2 Maccabees 7:28, which postdates the Hebrew Bible. The second option seems more consistent with the rest of the account and is the one we follow here.
The introduction contains a description of the universe before God started ordering and creating. While there seems to have been some sort of preexisting material, probably imagined as masses of murky water, it did not constitute a life-sustaining world. Thus, God did not start with a clean slate, with nothingness. Instead, the world at the beginning was dark and brooding. Everything was just a mass of water, the waters of chaos residing in deepest darkness.
Primeval Chaos. The phrase "deep water" (1:2) signifies not just bottomless oceans, but the threatening waters of Mesopotamian lore that ancient peoples always feared would be their undoing. The Hebrew word behind "deep water" is equivalent to the Akkadian word tiamat which names the ocean goddess in the Mesopotamian creation story, called the Enuma Elish (see below). A variety of ancient myths describe a cosmic battle at the beginning of time. The sea monster is variously called Sea (Yamm), River (Nahar), Serpent (Lotan/Leviathan), Dragon (Tannin), or Arrogance (Rahab). After a battle, the high god subdues and restrains the villain of primeval chaos and so achieves victory. The description of the move from chaos to cosmos in Genesis 1 is not described as battle, but many authorities find tell-tale remnants of the cosmic myth here and elsewhere in biblical literature (see McCurley 1983 and Batto 1992).
1 When Elohim began to create heaven and earth, the earth was untamed and shapeless, and darkness was on the surface of the deep water. 2 And the wind/spirit of Elohim hovered over the surface of the water. (1:1-2)
