Page 13 - ADAM IN GENESIS

in a more local land sense. This concept of global vs. local extents in these
multiple-meaning words is the topic of continued and often heated debate. The context
often tells us the correct use if we carefully search. The parallels of God systematically
redefining and reducing the extents of the heavens and the earth is evidence that we are
here dealing with the creation of the global earth inside the physical universe we observe
today in this first verse in the Bible. This is also the understanding of writers in the NT
(Heb. 11:3).
By the time we get to verse 2 we find the global earth already in existence albeit in a
different state than we see it today. I believe this verse still has the temporal setting of the
beginning because of the flow of the first two verses, and we have not yet seen any
wayyiqtol verbs which would depict a progression of the storyline. Only the KJV
translates the conjunction and (the Hebrew letter waw) to start verse 2 (the NASB
dropped it, NIV and HCSB translate now). I feel the omission of the conjunction takes
away from the transition between the first two verses. The first verse speaks of the
creation of the earth and verse 2 tells us the conditions present at that time. At some point
early in its history the earth was tohu wavohu (without form and void). These words are
difficult to understand. They occur elsewhere together only in Is. 34:11 and Jer. 4:23 and
speak of God's judgement. This has caused some to say the same of their usage in Gen.
1:2 and lend support to the gap theory, but that is unnecessary. As Isaiah says, God did
not create the earth to be tohu but formed it to be inhabited (Is. 45:18). Though the earth
may have been an empty wasteland in the beginning, God did not intend for it to stay that
way.
At this same time on the void, empty earth, darkness was over the face of the deep.
Apparently the primordial earth contained a deep which the Hebrew audience would have
understood to be the oceans and seas or any other large body of water. Genesis 1:9 gives
the allusion that the deep was global in extent and this is further evidenced in the
Creation Psalm (Ps. 104:6-9).

We have already determined that the only character we see in Genesis 1 is elohim (God).
In verse 2b we see a shift in the vantage point of the observer (God). And the Spirit of
God was hovering over the face of the waters. God himself is pictured as hovering over
the waters of earth, and I believe this shifts the focus of the observer from a heavenly
vantage point in creation to a more personal, earthly vantage point. This also suits the
Hebrew listener better as he can relate only to this vantage point. In Hebrew ruach (spirit,
breath, wind) occurs 378 times. Like the Greek pneuma, ruach can also mean wind, but
the construct waruach elohim should leave no doubt that the object is the Spirit of God
and not a wind from God as in the NRSV. It is the breath of God that is doing the creating
(Job 26:13); the very Word of God who was in the beginning (John 1:1).
The Spirit of God is here performing an action. He was hovering over the face of the
waters. It is unclear exactly the meaning of was hovering (Heb. merachepheth), but we
know it is in participial form in the Piel stem. Therefore a proper translation should carry
the ing ending and not simply moved as the KJV translates. Moses also uses this word in
Deut. 32:11 to picture God hovering over his people as an eagle hovers over her young.
BDB has an interesting comment suggesting the word could mean brooding (or
fertilizing) from the Syriac cognate racheph. This could be God's first act of creating life
on earth by fertilizing the waters of the deep with single-celled cyanobacteria and green