J.R. Dummelow on Creation Being Ex Materia, not Ex Nihilo, in Genesis 1:1-3

Render, ‘In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth—now the earth was waste and void, and darkness was over the deep, and the spirit of God was brooding over the waters—then God said: Let there be light.’ On this reading, ‘Creation’ is not ‘out of nothing,’ but out of pre-existing chaos. Vv. 1 and 3 tell us, when God determined on the creation of the ordered universe, the first work was the formation of light as essential to life and progress. The first half of 2⁴ was probably prefixed originally to v. 1. (J.R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible [London: Macmillan and Co., 1909], 3-4, emphasis added)

 

Further Reading

Blake T. Ostler, Out of Nothing: A History of Creation ex Nihilo in Early Christian Thought

James Patrick Holding refuted on Creation Ex Nihilo

Ex Materia or Ex Nihilo? Creation in Genesis 1:1-2