Genesis 1:2 "The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters."
Some claim that Genesis 1:2 shows God forming a pre-existing formless mass. Essentially, that God did not create the earth from nothing but formed it from stuff that was already there. Naturally, I had to do some research about it. I took each word and found it's other uses in the bible, Hebrew roots, and stuff like that. I'm not sure if I have a conclusive answer, but this is what I found. Pay special attention to the first word (deep), and the words darkness, void, and formless. I think they form the core of the idea.
The order of the words in Hebrew runs thus: "the deep, the surface, over, darkness, void, formless, was, the earth, waters, surface, over, was moving, of God, the spirit."
() The deep: tehom
Basically the core of the earth, not necessarily in a completely physical sense, but connotating water, formlessness, the foundations of the earth, etc. Psalms and Job sometimes say they're buried under it.
Connected words: deep, sea, abyss; confusion, empty place, without form, nothing, vain, waste (as in a wasteland)
() Surface: panim or paneh
A relatively small, ambiguous word. Often translated face (geometrically or as a verb). Most of the time it's lost in English translation and the closest word is 'beyond' - kind of strange.
() Over: al
Just a preposition. About as important and ambiguous as the English word.
() Darkness: choshek
Has a number of different uses. Primarily physical darkness, but it is also used for a variety of negative concepts like distress, sorrow, blindness, terror, pain, mourning, ignorance, sin, etc. It reminds me that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 4:5)
() Void: bohu
Emptiness, void, wasteland, indistinguishable ruin, vacuity. It's pretty close to our clear physical meaning of absolute void, nothingness, absence, but not quite. I think the difference is primarily due to culture. Back then a word for absolute void might not have been so easy. They may have had a word to indicate that something was missing, but I don't think it applies here. See Jeremiah 4:23-26, the word is used in v23 along with formless tohu.
() Formless: tohu
Formless, confusion, unreality, empty, chaos, futile, meaningless, meaningless arguments. The feeling I'm getting here is unordered chaos, useless, unguided crap. It's used occasionally for fools seeking after false Gods in vain.
() Was: hayah
A being verb. It's like 'becoming' or 'to come to pass' though, which is kind of odd to me. So...the earth became void and such? Was it something beforehand? Perhaps I am in error here. I don't know.
() Earth: erets
Earth, land. Can refer to the whole earth or a specific plot of land. E.g. the land of Israel has rest from war.
() Waters: hammayim (or just mayim)
Just physical normal water in most cases. However, the same word (mayim) is used of living water that flows out from the new temple in the end times in Zachariah 14:8, symbolic of Gods peace/knowledge/shalom, and water in the new testament often symbolized the Holy Spirit or baptism. So it's possible the water here would at least remind readers of the holy spirit.
() Surface: panim or paneh
Same as the first one.
Conclusion:
I guess you could interpret it in a number of ways if you tried. What is the correct way? I don't know. In the whole sentence you have the 'deep' and 'earth', which both seem to be pretty earthy, pre-created things (maybe). But the three main descriptors kind of go the other direction.
The first is darkness, like the absence of God. The most important thing is that the earth (or the void that was before the earth) didn't have God. It was evil (in the sense that 'nothing' can be evil).
The second is pretty clearly absolute void. This gives the most evidence that God did in fact make the world from nothing (besides the fact that the ten days afterward he makes a ton of stuff too. If he can speak light into existence, he could easily have spoke the earth into existence).
The third just means without order. It doesn't have a purpose, it's not guided. If darkness points out the negative effects of the absence of God, this one points out the absence of the good stuff of God. God is orderly, strong, makes sense, etc. This is just saying order is missing.
Now to model the whole sentence. I think this sentence stands alone because the first "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" is kind of a summary, and the next verse "And God said 'let there be light'" begins the story.
Word-wise it begins with the deep (the foundation of the earth) and then uses the words dark, void, and formless. Then it says earth waters and goes to Gods spirit moving. I might pair these off. First the deep earth is dark and without God, then he starts moving over it.
I am slightly disconcerted by the order of most translations. NASB "The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters." See, they split up the word 'deep' and give the last two adjectives to it (formless and void earth), then take the first one and give it to the deep (darkness over the surface of the deep). I guess this doesn't violate the model I proposed, but it just seems odd to me.
A commentary by J. Vernon McGee poses some ideas I agree with and some I don't.
He thinks some disaster happened between verses 1 and 2, that the earth God messed up by the fall of Satan. I guess this could have happened, but it's so vague I'd rather not even try.
'Moved' in v2 he says is like 'brooded'. So essentially God is thinking and intentionally focusing on the earth.
He pointed out the possible connection between 'waters' and the Holy Spirit and other concepts.
Application:
Before God came, the world was miserably evil/devoid of him, nonexistent, and without meaning/order. But the spirit of God started moving over the waters.
Does this mean the world existed with God and then he formed it? I'm disinclined to think so based on the void word. (Plus God is eternal and all, the alpha and omega, and all things were created through Christ (John 1:3) all things ought to include the earth). However, you do research on your own and figure it out.
