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what contemporary creation myths might the israelite authors have been speaking to or against here?

Adds the setting and its conversation across both testaments.

Genesis 1:1-2

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was on the surface of the deep. God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

This is the very opening of the book of Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Bible. It sets the stage for everything that follows, introducing the creator God and the initial state of the world.

What does it mean for our understanding of creativity and order to consider the world as having emerged from a formless, empty deep?

Then — the setting

The book of Genesis was likely compiled and edited over centuries, with its final form taking shape during or after the Babylonian exile (6th-5th centuries BCE). The authors were addressing a people who had experienced immense disruption and exposure to other powerful cultures with their own foundational stories. They were familiar with Mesopotamian myths, such as the Enuma Elish, a Babylonian creation epic where the world is formed from the carcass of a defeated cosmic deity, Tiamat, personifying chaotic salt water. Genesis 1 presents a stark alternative: a single, transcendent God creates by speaking, not by struggling with other gods, and brings order from an initial formless state rather than from conflict.

Across the Testaments

In the Old Testament, these verses establish God as the sole, sovereign creator, distinguishing the Israelite understanding from polytheistic neighbors. The New Testament, particularly John 1:1-3, explicitly connects this primordial creative act to Jesus, stating, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.' This develops the Genesis account by identifying the 'Word' (Logos) as the agent of creation, implying a continuity of divine purpose and presence from the very start, and later revealing the 'Word' as incarnate in Jesus.

Keep thinking

Read alongside it

Psalm 104:5-9
This Psalm describes God establishing the earth and setting boundaries for the waters, echoing themes of order from chaos.
Isaiah 45:18
This verse from Isaiah emphasizes God as the creator who did not create the earth as a chaos, but to be inhabited, connecting to Genesis's ordering of the world.

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