nothing, and implanted in them the forces and laws of their development; the words "God created the heaven and the earth" will suit either case.

As the object of Moses was a geogony, and not a cosmogony, he continues without further mention of the heavens, "And the earth was without form and void." These words are in contrast with the account which follows. When man was established as the ruler of the earth, it was ready for him as a dwelling-place; the land was divided from the sea, and the latter was confined within strict limits. It was clothed with vegetation, and land, water, and air were peopled with animals; it was surrounded by the atmosphere, and illuminated by the stars. It was not so from the beginning; on the contrary, this state was preceded by another in which as yet no sign could be seen of this separation of the elements, and of the existence of individual creatures. Moses describes this condition in these words: the earth was "without form and void," thohu wabohu; and either God formed the present organized condition of the earth in succession to this chaotic condition, or the earth developed from this chaotic state into its later condition, according to the will and under the influence of God. This is the only certain conclusion which can be drawn by exegesis from ver. 2. Whether this chaotic condition which preceded the present was the original one, the condition in which the earth first existed; or whether this chaotic state was preceded by another state; or in other words, Did the earth exist only as chaos before the work of the six days? or did yet another organized condition precede chaos, so that chaos was formed by

the ruins of a preceding world? these questions cannot be answered by exegesis. The chaotic condition out of which the later state of order was developed is the first of which the Hexameron speaks, but it does not necessarily follow that it was the first in which the world existed.

The contents and the connection of the first verses

Or,

can then be understood in two ways. First, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth; and the earth, when it was first created by God, was without form and void, and it received its form and development only through the further operation of God. secondly, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth;—that is an independent statement, and what follows is not to be closely connected with it, but to be considered as a new paragraph;-but before the earth attained to its present condition it was without form and void, and this condition began to give way to the present one with the creation of light, ver. 3. If we adopt the first of these we find that there is a connection between the second verse and the first, and a good progress of thought from ver. 1 to 3; but the second is not exegetically inadmissible.

How long did the condition of thohu wabohu last? To this question the exegete can only answer that he does not know. Genesis only says that the earth was in this condition when God began to form it, but there is no mention of how long it lasted. Nor could we answer the question if we knew anything about the duration of the six days. For the beginning of the first day must be dated from the time of the creation of light, so that the period of the thohu wabohu must have been before the first of the six days. There is

therefore nothing in the Bible to interfere with science if it should determine what length of time elapsed between the first beginning of the universe and the beginning of the present condition of the earth.

The condition of thohu wabohu is thus described in the second verse of Genesis: "And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the

face of the waters."

In explaining these expressions we must pay attention to the following facts: The earth is said to be without form and void because the plants and animals did not as yet exist to adorn and inhabit it; the waters are spoken of because the dry land appeared through the gathering together of the waters on the third day only; Genesis describes these waters as covered with darkness because the light was only created on the first day.

This description of the condition of chaos is therefore essentially a negative one; we are only told what was not yet there, but was to come in the course of the six days. And further, we may say that the description is essentially superficial; it only mentions those things in reference to the earth which are quite evident; there is water on its surface, and above it darkness. Genesis does not say what the condition of the interior of the earth was, whether the solid elements had already come together under the water, and were only covered by it, or whether the whole earth was still in a fluid condition. The most mighty fermentings and revolutions may have been taking place in the interior of the earth, chemical and mechanical forces at work, fire and volcanoes

H

glowing; the spiritual eye of man, to which God reveals the history of creation, sees nothing of all this, it only knows that the earth did not present that beautiful aspect which we see now, that it was all enveloped in water and darkness. You see that even the description which the Bible gives us of the state of chaos is very poor and incomplete. If science can tell us more about it, if it has discovered anything about the condition of the interior of the earth, and about the forces in action there, we may welcome these discoveries, for Genesis tells us less about this period than we should like to know, and it tells us too little for us to fear that anything which may be discovered by natural science could not be brought into harmony with the Bible.

The description which Genesis does give of the thohu wabohu is not attractive, for it consists only of the words without form and void, waters and darkness. The last part of the second verse gives a lighter touch to the picture, adds a joyous or at least hopeful element to it: "and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," or as the Hebrew word is more correctly translated, having regard to the related dialects, and as it has been translated by some of the Fathers:1 "The Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the waters." Chaos is therefore under the influence of the Divine Spirit, and it is intended that life shall come forth from it, as from the egg on which the bird is brooding. The chaotic mass, as it is, is a creature unworthy of God, it has not been produced in order to remain as it is, but that it may supply the raw material for more perfect forms; and by the words, "the Spirit

1 Cf. Bas. in Hex. hom. ii. 6.

1

of God moved or brooded upon the face of the waters," Moses declares that chaos contains the germ of these more perfect forms; or that the divine purpose and the divine power are ruling over this inorganic matter, in order to form it into something organic and complete.

Another interpretation of this passage has been given by both ancient and modern, rationalistic and believing writers. It is this, "and a wind of God hovered or passed over the waters." This translation is exegetically inadmissible. No doubt the first meaning of Ruach is "breath," and so of course "wind," and the expressions mountains of God," "cedars of God," may be quoted as parallels to that of "wind of God;" as these expressions denote mighty mountains and mighty cedars, so "wind of God" would mean a mighty storm. But these expressions are strictly poetical, and Ruach Elohim never has this meaning in the Old Testament, although it very often has that of "Spirit of God." And besides this, the word rachaph, whether it is translated hovered or brooded, does not apply to a storm. Very few competent interpreters, however, are in favour of this translation; almost all hold to the ordinary one, "Spirit of God." I need not therefore consider it further, neither is it necessary to consider the question whether or how far the expression the

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Spirit of God" here means what we from the point of view of Christian theology mean by the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Trinity. The Old Testament gives the name of the Spirit of God to the indwelling divine force which forms, preserves, animates, and perfects, and we from our point of view may retain