The very first word of Genesis, bərē’šît,
literally “in beginning of,” is not a prepositional phrase, “in the
beginning,” as often rendered. It starts a “when-clause” (a temporal clause), “when
at first God created the heavens and the earth.” Such “when-clause,” followed
by “then clauses” (here probably in v. 3), are known in other major literary
works outside the Bible, including other creation accounts (cf. “when-clause”
in 2:4a; for the syntax, see Jer 7:22 and Hos 1:2). Verse 1 tells the time of
creation, a divine process that does not commence until verse 3. The waters in
verse 2 are already present at the beginning of God’s creation. Thus, contrary
to popular belief, Genesis 1 does not narrate the absolute beginning of
everything. . . . Verse 2 describes the universe’s condition at the time of
creation. Three sentences resemble poetic lines, with their words corresponding
generally in meaning and often in word order, grammatical forms, and sounds
(often called “poetical parallelism”). Verse 2 envisions the primordial
pre-creation universe as a space filled with water. Creation in Genesis is not
creation from nothing but a process beginning with water, initially not beneficial
for human life but turned into an element that is. The “mighty wind” may be
translated also “the spirit (or life-breath) of God” (cf. Gen 8:1), evoking the
divine role in what unfolds. The abyss and waters are the cosmic waters that
the deity is said to defeat. In other biblical texts, the waters are
anthropomorphized as enemies (Pss 74:13 and 104:6-7). In this traditional
model, creation emerges out of the divine conflict against cosmic waters.
Genesis 1 takes the model further in verse 3. Rather than God rebuking the waters
or battling the waters, God in verse 3 speaks, and creation begins. An audience
familiar with the traditional model of creation is shown by Genesis 1 that God
is the power beyond all or that any power needing only to speak for creation to
appear (cf. Pss 33:6-7). (Mark S. Smith, “Genesis,” in The Jerome Biblical
Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, ed. John J. Collins, Gina
Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, and Donald Senior [3d ed.; London: T&T
Clark, 2022], 205)
38:4-11.
The first topic raised by God is creation: “Where were you when I founded the
earth?” The questions incidentally give an account of how the process of
creation was understood. The world was built on pedestals, sunk in the primeval
waters, and was measured out as a building would be. On the foundation of the
earth, compare Psalms 104:5. One of the major tasks of the creator was to set
limits of the sea. The Sea was personified as a deity in Canaanite myth, but
here it is viewed as a natural phenomenon. The drama of setting a limit to the
sea is recounted in Psalm 104:6-9. It is apparent that that God did not create
the world out of nothing. The sea was primeval, and existed before God set
about constructing the world. The work of creation entailed clearing out a
space for earthly life and securing it. This account of creation complements
the brief and allusive account in chapter 26. There we were told that God
stretched Zaphon, the mythical mountain, over the void and suspended the earth
over nothing at all. Chapter 26 alludes to a struggle with the Sea and the sea
monster Rahab, a dragon that fled before God and was pierced. This kind of
account of creation is also alluded to in passages in the Book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 27:1 refers to the fleeing serpent as Leviathan, and identifies it as
“the dragon that is in the sea.” Isaiah 51:9 says that the Lord crushed Rahab
and pierced the dragon, and dried up to the waters of the great deep. (the
prophet assimilates the crossing of the Sea in Exodus to the conquest of the
Sea in creation.) it is evident that these passages presuppose an account of
creation that is very different from the orderly process described in Genesis
1, and more in line with Canaanite mythic traditions. Job shares with Genesis,
however, the insistence that creation is good. When God laid the foundation of
the earth, the morning stars sang out and all the sons of God shouted with joy.
(John J. Collins and Rebecca Raphael, “Job,” in ibid., 659)
As part of an argument for God’s
unlimited power, the clause “fashioned the universe from formless matter”
(11:17) suggests that the author did not read Genesis 1 as an account of
creation ex nihilo (from nothing). He takes from Genesis 1 the doctrine that
all of creation is good and loved by God (11:24; cf. 1:14). God’s mercy extends
even to Israel’s enemies. (Karina martin Hogan, “Wisdom of Solomon,” in ibid.,
765)
