Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 1:2

"And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" — Genesis 1:2 (ASV)

And the earth. —The conjunction “and” negates the well-intentioned attempt to harmonize geology and Scripture by taking Genesis 1:1 as a mere heading; the two verses go together and form a general summary of creation, which is afterward divided into its several stages.

The word “was” is not the copula here, but the substantive verb existed, and it expresses duration. After creation, the earth existed as a shapeless and empty waste.

Without form, and void. —Literally, tohu and bohu, which words are both substantives and signify wasteness and emptiness. The similarity of their forms, joined with the harshness of their sound, made them pass almost into a proverb for everything that was dreary and desolate (Isaiah 34:11; Jeremiah 4:23). It expresses here the state of primeval matter immediately after creation, when there was not yet any cohesion between the separate particles.

Darkness. —As light is the result either of the condensation of matter or of vibrations caused by chemical action, this exactly agrees with the previous representation of the chaos from which the earth was to be shaped. It then existed only as an incoherent waste of emptiness.

The deep. —Tĕhôm. This word, from a root signifying confusion or disturbance, is poetically applied to the ocean, as in Psalm 42:7, from the restless motion of its waves, but is used here to describe the chaos as a surging mass of shapeless matter. In the Babylonian legend, Tiàmat, the Hebrew tĕhôm, is represented as overcome by Merodach, who out of the primeval anarchy brings order and beauty (Sayce, Chaldean Genesis, pp. 59, 109, 113).

The Spirit of God. —Hebrew, a wind of God, that is, a mighty wind, as rendered by the Targum and most Jewish interpreters (see Note on Genesis 23:6). So the wind of Jehovah makes the grass wither (Isaiah 40:7); and so God makes the winds His messengers (Psalms 104:4).

The argument that no wind then existed because the atmosphere had not been created is baseless, for if water existed, so did air. But this unseen material force, wind (John 3:8), has always suggested to the human mind the thought of the Divine agency, which, equally unseen, is even mightier in its working. When, then, creation is ascribed to the wind (Job 26:13; Psalms 104:30), we justly see not the mere instrumental force employed, but rather that Divine operative energy which resides especially in the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.

But we must be on our guard against the common error of commentators, who read into the text of these most ancient documents perfect doctrines which were not revealed in their fullness until the Gospel was given. It is a marvelous fact that Genesis does contain the germ of almost every evangelical truth, but it contains it in a suggestive and not a completed form. So here this mighty energizing wind suggests to us the thought of the Holy Ghost, and is far more eloquent in its original simplicity than when we read into it a doctrine not made known until revelation was perfected in Christ (John 7:39).

Moved. —Hebrew, fluttered lovingly . This word also would lead the mind to the thought of the agency of a Person. In Syriac, the verb is a very common one for the incubation of birds; and, alluding to this passage, it is metaphorically employed for both the waving of the priest’s hand over the cup when consecrating the wine for the Eucharist, and that of the patriarch over a bishop’s head at his consecration. Two points must here be noticed:

1. The first, that the motion was not self-originated, but was external to the chaos;
2. The second, that it was a gentle and loving energy, which tenderly and gradually, with fostering care, called forth the latent possibilities of a nascent world.