Texts in Conversation
Genesis 1:2 depicts the earth as formless and covered in darkness when creation began, but Isaiah 45:18, reflecting a later tradition within Isaiah, appears to reject this and deny that the world was ever in a state of chaos.
Share:
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.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Isaiah 45:18
Hebrew Bible
18 For this is what the Lord says, the one who created the sky— he is the true God, the one who formed the earth and made it; he established it, he did not create it without order, he formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, I have no peer. 19 I have not spoken in secret, in some hidden place. I did not tell Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain!’ I am the Lord, the one who speaks honestly, who makes reliable announcements. 20 Gather together and come! Approach together, you refugees from the nations. Those who carry wooden idols know nothing, those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.
Date: 7th-5th Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Search:
Notes and References
"... but Deutero-Isaiah, alone among the biblical writers, insists that YHWH created everything in the world - not only light but also darkness ... Deutero-Isaiah denies that the earth ever was as chaotic as Genesis 1:2 would have us believe ... as Weinfeld explains, Deutero-Isaiah argues against Genesis' implication that God had not created darkness; further, lest one suggest that the world He created was chaotic at its outset, the prophet denies that there was chaos at all in the beginning ..."
Sommer, Benjamin D.
A Prophet Reads Scripture: Allusion in Isaiah 40-66
(p. 143) Stanford University Press, 1998
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.