Texts in Conversation
Genesis 1:2 describes the primordial earth as “without shape and empty,” translating the Hebrew tohu wabohu. The Greek Septuagint renders this as “invisible and unformed,” introducing visual language influenced by Platonic ideas about creation.
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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!
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Genesis 1:2
Septuagint
1 In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. 2 But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over the water. 3 And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... It is obvious that LXX's aoratos kai akataskeuastos, "invisible and unformed" is greatly influenced by the Platonic myth Timaeus in its choice of Greek terms for tohu wabohu. Yet, it is noteworthy, LXX did not adopt the term chaos, "chaos", in translating tohu wabohu." ..."
Rebecca S. Watson, “'Was your Wrath Against the Rivers?' Focusing the Debate in Habakkuk 3,” in Conversations on Canaanite and Biblical Themes: Creation, Chaos and Monotheism, ed. Rebecca Watson and Adrian Curtis (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2021), 438.
* 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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