Texts in Conversation
Genesis describes of God’s spirit hovering over the waters before the ordering of the world begins, and Deuteronomy 32 reuses the same verb for an eagle guarding its young, connecting the creation of the world with the creation of Israel.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 1:2
Hebrew Bible
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was hovering11 over the surface of the water. 3 God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light! 4 God saw that the light was good, so God separated the light from the darkness.
Deuteronomy 32:11
Hebrew Bible
9 For the Lord’s allotment is his people, Jacob is his special possession. 10 The Lord found him in a desolate land, in an empty wasteland where animals howl. He continually guarded him and taught him; he continually protected him like the pupil of his eye. 11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that hovers over its young, so the Lord spread out his wings and took him, he lifted him up on his pinions. 12 The Lord alone was guiding him, no foreign god was with him. 13 He enabled him to travel over the heights of the earth, and he ate of the produce of the fields. He provided honey for him from the cliffs, and olive oil from the hardest of rocks,
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Notes and References
"... After the declaration of the creation of things invisible and visible in the beginning (Genesis 1:1), the biblical record notes conditions in the visible world calling for divine action: the “earth” was in a state of unbounded deep-and-darkness (Genesis 1:2). Then the presence of the Creator who would make light shine in the darkness and set bounds to the waters is affirmed in the remarkable statement: “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). The verb used in verse 2 occurs again in the Pentateuch only in Deuteronomy 32:11. There, by the use of this verb, the divine activity in leading Israel through “the waste howling wilderness” (verse 10) on the way to Canaan is likened to that of an eagle hovering protectively over its young, spreading out its wings to support them, and so guiding them on to maturity. In Exodus 19:4 God similarly describes himself as bearing Israel on eagles’ wings ..."
Kline, Meredith G.
Creation in the Image of the Glory Spirit
(pp. 1-5) Westminster Theological Seminary, 2006
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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