What was the condition of the Earth before creation began?

Answer 1

1. In the first biblical creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:4a) the earth was without form, but the oceans already existed, covering the dry land which appeared on day three when God parted the waters.
2. In the second biblical creation story (Genesis 2:4b-20) the dry earth already existed, but plants had not yet grown because God had yet to make it rain.
3. From a scientific point of view, creation really begins with the 'Big Bang', some 11 billion years ago. For billions of years, there was no earth. Our world eventually began as a cloud of gas which gradually formed into a ball and cooled until the hot gases condensed into a rocky sphere orbiting the sun. A billion years later, primitive life forms began to appear.

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Answer 2

It didn't exist. God created the universe out of nothing (Exodus 20:11, Isaiah 40:28; Rashi commentary to Genesis 1:14; Maimonides' "Guide," 2:30; Nachmanides on Gen. 1:1), so before that the Earth simply wasn't there.

Note:

Rashi commentary (2:8) explains that Genesis ch.1 and 2 form a single set of events, as chapter 2 expands the brief verses of ch.1 with further detail.

An attempt to split the text artificially has been perpetrated by people such as Wellhausen (the father of modern Biblical-criticism, 1844-1918) who suggested attributing the narrative to various authors, despite the Torah's explicit statement as to its provenance (Exodus 24:12, Deuteronomy 31:24). Wellhausen's claims have been debunked one by one, as Archaeology and other disciplines have demonstrated the integrity of the Torah. No fragments have ever been found that would support his Documentary Hypothesis, which remains nothing more than an arbitrary claim, whose falsehood has been pointed out:

http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=1131(a Christian author)

http://www.pearlmancta.com/BiblicalcriticswrongRShlomoCohen.htm

See also:

What_are_some_proofs_offered_by_Creationists