Thomas Römer on creatio ex materia in Genesis 1

This text does not narrate a creatio ex nihilo, as it can later be found in Judaism and Christianity. Quite the contrary, it emphasizes the fact that God did not create the darkness, symbol of evil, nor the tehom, i.e., the waters symbolizing chaos and darkness (that may allude to the sea serpent Tiamat who Marduk, according to the epic Enuma Elish, has to kill before creating the world and humankind). In Genesis 1, Elohim  integrates these things in his creation by transforming them (pushing back the waters and brightening up the darkness), but darkness and chaos are not “good” (on the first day of creation, only the light is characterized as “good”; Gen 1:4) (Thomas Römer, "The Origin and the Status of Evil According to the Hebrew Bible," in Die Wurzel allen Übels Vorstellungen über die Herkunft des Bösen und Schlechten in der Philosophie und Religion des 1.–4. Jahrhunderts [Ratio Religionis Studien III; ed. F. Jourdan and R. Hirsch-Luipold; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014], 53-66, here p. 57)