View source for Genesis 1:2

{{short description|Second verse of the first chapter of Genesis}}
{{Bible chapter|letname= Genesis 1:2 |previouslink= Genesis 1:1 |previousletter= 1:1 |nextlink= Genesis 1:3 |nextletter= 1:3 |book=[[Book of Genesis]] |biblepart=[[Old Testament]] | booknum= 1 |hbiblepart= [[Torah]] | hbooknum = 1 |category= | filename= Wenceslas Hollar - Chaos (State 1).jpg |size=242px | caption=<div style="width: 242px; text-align: center; line-height: 1em">Depiction of Genesis 1:2 by [[Wenceslaus Hollar]]: the Spirit of God (with [[Tetragrammaton]]) moves over the face of the deep.</div>}}
'''Genesis 1:2''' is the second [[Bible verse|verse]] of the [[Genesis creation narrative]]. It is a part of the [[Torah portion]] [[Bereishit (parsha)|Bereshit]] ({{bibleverse|Genesis|1:1-6:8|HE}}).

==Text==
===Masoretic Text===
{{blockquote|{{Script/Hebrew|וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל פְּנֵי תְהוֹם וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם}}<ref name=biblehub/>}}

===Transliteration===
:''Veha’aretz hayeta tohu vaḇohu vechoshekh ‘al-pene tehom veruach Elohim merachephet ‘al-pene hammayim.''<ref name=biblehub>[https://biblehub.com/text/genesis/1-2.htm Hebrew text analysis: Genesis 1:2]. Biblehub.com</ref>

# ''[[Vav-consecutive#Vav conjunction|Ve]]'': "and"
# ''ha’aretz'': "the earth"
# ''hayeta'': "was", [[Qal (linguistics)|pa'al construction]] past tense third person feminine singular
# [[Tohu wa-bohu|''tohu vaḇohu'']]: difficult to translate, but often rendered as "formless and void"
# ''vechoshekh'': "and darkness"
# ''‘al-pene'': "[was] over [the] face", ''pənê'' being a plural [[construct state]] of the Hebrew word for face
# ''[[tehom]]'': a mythological or cosmological concept often translated as "the Deep"
# ''veruach'': "and [the] ''[[ruach]]''", a difficult term translated as "spirit" or "wind"
# [[Elohim#With singular verb|''Elohim'']]: the generic Hebrew term for God or gods
# ''merachephet'': often translated as "hovered/was hovering" The word is ריחף (''richeph'') in [[Modern Hebrew verbs#Stems|pi'el]] participle form prefixed with [[Prefixes in Hebrew#Other prepositions|one letter prefix "m-"]].
# ''‘al-pene hammayim'': "over [the] face of the waters"

===Translation===
{{blockquote|The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|1:2|NKJV}}: [[New King James Version|NKJV]]</ref>}}

== Analysis ==

Genesis 1:2 presents an initial condition of creation - namely, that it is ''[[tohu wa-bohu]]'', formless and void. This serves to introduce the rest of the chapter, which describes a process of forming and filling.{{sfn|Carlson|Longman|2010|p=109}} That is, on the first three days the heavens, the sky and the land is formed, and they are filled on days four to six by luminaries, birds and fish, and animals and man respectively.

Before God begins to create, the world is ''{{Transliteration|he|[[tohu wa-bohu]]}}'' ({{langx|he|תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ}}): the word ''{{Transliteration|he|tohu}}'' by itself means "emptiness, futility"; it is used to describe the desert wilderness. ''{{Transliteration|he|Bohu}}'' has no known meaning and was apparently coined to rhyme with and reinforce ''{{Transliteration|he|tohu}}''.{{sfn|Alter|2004|p=17|ps=: Alter represents this in English by alliteration: "''welter and waste''"}} It appears again in Jeremiah 4:23,<ref>{{bibleverse|Jer.|4:23|ESV}}</ref> where Jeremiah warns Israel that rebellion against God will lead to the return of darkness and chaos, "as if the earth had been ‘uncreated’."{{sfn|Thompson|1980|p=230}} ''{{Transliteration|he|Tohu wa-bohu}}'', chaos, is the condition that ''{{Transliteration|he|bara}}'', ordering, remedies.{{sfn|Walton|2017|p=158}}

Darkness and "Deep" ({{langx|he|תְהוֹם}} ''{{Transliteration|he|t<sup>e</sup>hôm}}'') are two of the three elements of the chaos represented in ''{{Transliteration|he|[[tohu wa-bohu]]}}'' (the third is the formless earth). In the ''[[Enûma Eliš]]'', the Deep is personified as the goddess [[Tiamat]], the enemy of [[Marduk]];{{sfn|Walton|2017|p=158}} here it is the formless body of primeval water surrounding the habitable world, later to be released during the [[Deluge myth|Deluge]], when "all the fountains of the great deep burst forth" from the waters beneath the earth and from the "windows" of the sky.{{sfn|Wenham|2003|p=29}} [[William Dumbrell]] argues that the reference to the "deep" in this verse "alludes to the detail of the [[ancient Near Eastern]] cosmologies" in which "a general threat to order comes from the unruly and chaotic sea, which is finally tamed by a warrior god." Dumbrell goes on to suggest that Genesis 1:2 "reflects something of the chaos/order struggle characteristic of ancient cosmologies".{{sfn|Dumbrell|2002|p=14}} However, [[David Toshio Tsumura]] argues that the term ''{{Transliteration|he|t<sup>e</sup>hôm}}'' is simply a common noun referring to underground water, and disputes any connection between the term and chaos.{{sfn|Tsumura|2012|pp=8–9, 11}}

The "Spirit of God" hovering over the waters in some translations of Genesis 1:2 comes from the Hebrew phrase ''{{Transliteration|he|ruach elohim}}'', which has alternately been interpreted as a "great wind".<ref>See: {{harvp|Darshan|2019|pp=51–78}}.</ref>{{sfn|Blenkinsopp|2011|pp=33-34}} [[Victor P. Hamilton]] decides, somewhat tentatively, for "spirit of God" but notes that this does not necessarily refer to the "Holy Spirit" of Christian theology.{{sfn|Hamilton|1990|p=114}} ''Rûach'' ({{lang|he|רוּחַ}}) has the meanings "wind, spirit, breath," and ''{{Transliteration|he|elohim}}'' can mean "great" as well as "god". The ''{{Transliteration|he|ruach elohim}}'' which moves over the Deep may therefore mean the "wind/breath of God" (the storm-wind is God's breath in Psalms 18:15 and elsewhere, and the wind of God returns in the Flood story as the means by which God restores the earth), or God's "spirit", a concept which is somewhat vague in the Hebrew bible, or simply a great storm-wind.{{sfn|Blenkinsopp|2011|pp=33-34}}

==See also==
{{portal|Christianity|Religion}}
* [[Book of Genesis]]
* [[Genesis 1:1]]
* ''[[Tohu wa-bohu]]''
* [[Genesis 1:3]]
* [[Apollo 8 Genesis reading]] while in lunar orbit, December 24, 1968

==References==

===Citations===
<references />

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
*{{cite book
| last      = Alter
| first     = Robert
|author-link=Robert Alter
| title     = The Five Books of Moses: A Translation With Commentary
| year      = 2004
| publisher = W. W. Norton
| page     = [https://archive.org/details/fivebooksofmoses00alte/page/17 17]
| isbn = 9780393019551
| url       = https://archive.org/details/fivebooksofmoses00alte
| url-access = registration
}}
*{{cite book
| last      = Blenkinsopp
| first     = Joseph
| title     = Creation, Un-Creation, Re-Creation: A Discursive Commentary on Genesis 1-11
| year      = 2011
| publisher = T&T Clarke International
| pages     = 33–34
| isbn = 9780567372871
| url       = https://books.google.com/books?id=B12qwOSMD20C&q=Blenkinsopp+Genesis+commentary}}
*{{cite book
| last1      = Carlson
| first1     = Richard F.
| last2 = Longman
| first2 = Tremper
|author-link2=Tremper Longman
| title     = Science, Creation and the Bible: Reconciling Rival Theories of Origins
| year      = 2010
| publisher = InterVarsity Press
| page     = 109
| isbn = 9780830838899
| url       = https://books.google.com/books?id=wKLB-nKAwRQC&pg=PA109}}
*{{cite journal 
|last = Darshan 
|first = Guy
|title = Ruaḥ ’Elohim in Genesis 1:2 in Light of Phoenician Cosmogonies: A Tradition’s History 
|journal = Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 
|url = https://www.academia.edu/41189353 
|issue = 2 
|volume = 45 
|pages = 51–78 
|year = 2019 
|hdl = 10520/EJC-1ab8920fef 
|issn = 0259-0131}}
*{{cite book
| last      = Dumbrell
| first     = William J.
|author-link=William Dumbrell
| title     = The Faith of Israel: A Theological Survey of the Old Testament
| year      = 2002
| publisher = [[Baker Academic]]
| isbn     = 978-0-8010-2532-7
}}
*{{cite book
|last=Hamilton
|first=Victor P.
|author-link=Victor P. Hamilton
| title = The Book of Genesis: Chapters 1-17
| url  = https://books.google.com/books?id=WW31E9Zt5-wC&pg=PR3
| series = New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT)
| year   = 1990
| publisher = [[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]]
| location  = Grand Rapids
| isbn  = 0-8028-2521-4}}
*{{cite book
|last=Thompson
|first=J. A.
|author-link=J. A. Thompson
|year=1980 
|title=The Book of Jeremiah
|series=New International Commentary on the Old Testament
|edition=2
|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
|isbn=978-1467423038
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32hyCgAAQBAJ}}
*{{cite book
|author-link=David Toshio Tsumura
|last=Tsumura
|first=David Toshio 
|title=The Earth and the Waters in Genesis 1 and 2: A Linguistic Investigation
|series=Journal for the study of the Old Testament: Supplement series
|volume=83
|publisher=[[Sheffield Academic Press]]
|year=1989
|isbn=978-1850752080
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qtXYAAAAMAAJ}}
*{{cite book 
|author-link = David Toshio Tsumura
|last = Tsumura
|first = David Toshio
|title = Pentateuchal Traditions in the Late Second Temple Period: Proceedings of the International Workshop in Tokyo, August 28-31, 2007
|publisher = BRILL
|year = 2012
|isbn = 978-90-04-22360-8
|editor-last = Moriya
|editor-first = Akio
|chapter = The Doctrine of Creation ''ex nihilo'' and the Translation of ''tōhû wābōhû''
|editor-last2 = Hata 
|editor-first2 = Gohei 
|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6fgxAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA3}}
*{{cite book
|author-link=John H. Walton (theologian) 
|last=Walton 
|first=John H. 
|title=Genesis 
|publisher=[[Zondervan]]
|year=2011
|isbn=978-0310866206
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qNbx-84TAwQC}}
*{{cite book
|author-link=John H. Walton (theologian) 
|last=Walton 
|first=John H. 
|title=The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest
|publisher= [[InterVarsity Press]]
|year=2017
|isbn=978-0830890071
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6vItDwAAQBAJ}}
*{{cite book
|author-link= Gordon Wenham 
|last=Wenham 
|first=Gordon J. 
|title=Exploring the Old Testament: The Pentateuch 
|publisher=[[Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge|SPCK]]
|year=2003
|isbn=978-0281054299
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NX9gPgAACAAJ}}
{{refend}}

===Further reading===
* Jewish Publication Society. ''The Torah: The Five Books of Moses'' (3rd ed). Philadelphia: 1999.

==External links==
* [http://bible.cc/genesis/1-2.htm "Genesis 1:2."] Online Parallel Bible.

{{s-start}}
{{s-bef| before=[[Genesis 1:1]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Book of Genesis]]}}
{{s-aft| after=[[Genesis 1:3]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Genesis 1}}
{{Book of Genesis}}

[[Category:Hebrew Bible verses]]
[[Category:Genesis 1|Genesis 1:2]]