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Since the early centuries of the Common Era, tradition has held that Genesis 1:1 says "In the beginning God created heaven and earth." But as long ago as the eleventh century CE, the influential Jewish scholar, Rashi, said that Genesis 1:1 should really be read, "When God began to create" or "In the beginning of God's creation ". E.A. Speiser, in Genesis (Anchor Bible series), goes further and translates the sentence as: "When God set about to create heaven and earth - the world being a formless waste, with darkness over the seas... God said, 'Let there be light.' And there was light."

The creation account in Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a ( up to first sentence of 2:4) says there was a pre-existing watery chaos. The ocean was present and a wind (poetically, the spirit of God) moved across the surface of the waters. So the atmosphere - the air - was already present.

For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

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Mireille Rempel

Lvl 10
4y ago

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