Go to Related Reading
About this book

LXX Genesis

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 1

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. 4 And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided between the light and the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night, and there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water,⁠ and let it be a division between water and water, and it was so.⁠ 7 And God made the firmament, and God divided between the water which was under the firmament and the water which was above the firmament. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven, and God saw that it was good, and there was evening and there was morning, the second day. 9 And God said, Let the water which is under the heaven be collected into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so.⁠ And the water which was under the heaven was collected into its places, and the dry land appeared. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gatherings of the waters he called Seas, and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the herb of grass bearing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it, according to its kind on the earth, and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth the herb of grass bearing seed according to its kind and according to its likeness, and the fruit tree bearing fruit whose seed is in it, according to its kind on the earth, and God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. 14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, to divide between day and night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. 15 And let them be for light in the firmament of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth, and it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights, the greater light for regulating the day and the lesser light for regulating the night, the stars also. 17 And God placed them in the firmament of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth, 18 and to regulate day and night, and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth reptiles having life, and winged creatures flying above the earth in the firmament of heaven, and it was so. 21 And God made the great sea monsters, and every living reptile, which the waters brought forth according to their kinds, and every creature that flies with wings according to its kind, and God saw that they were good. 22 And God blessed them saying, Increase and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the creatures that fly be multiplied on the earth. 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. 24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind, quadrupeds and reptiles and wild beasts of the earth according to their kind, and it was so. 25 And God made the wild beasts of the earth according to their kind, and cattle according to their kind, and all the reptiles of the earth according to their kind, and God saw that they were good. 26 And God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness,⁠ and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the flying creatures of heaven, and over the cattle and all the earth, and over all the reptiles that creep on the earth. 27 And God made man, according to the image of God he made him, male and female he made them.⁠ 28 And God blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and flying creatures of heaven, and all the cattle and all the earth,⁠ and all the reptiles that creep on the earth. 29 And God said, Look, I have given to you every seed-bearing herb sowing seed which is upon all the earth, and every tree which has in itself the fruit of seed that is sown, to you it shall be for food. 30 And to all the wild beasts of the earth, and to all the flying creatures of heaven, and to every reptile creeping on the earth, which has in itself the breath of life, even every green plant for food; and it was so. 31 And God saw all the things that he had made, and, look, they were very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 1:2 and LXX Genesis 1:2

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

Share:

Summary

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.

Passages

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!
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

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.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Genesis

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 first word aoratos is clearly interpretive; "invisible" or "unseen" implies something quite different than either the notion of "desert" or "formlessness." The word aoratos was the term used by Plato to represent the invisible preexisting world of ideas, e.g., Timaeus 51a." ..."
Susan Brayford, Septuagint Commentary Series: Genesis (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 218.
"... Even though the concept of the equivalent invisible and unformed is used in the Timaeus, the Greek words do not appear together in the treatise itself. The nearest possible parallel is Plato's reference to a "mother and receptacle" which he called "a kind invisible and unshaped."" ..."
Johann Cook, “Reflecting on the Creation: LXX Genesis 1–2,” in Septuagint, Targum and Beyond: Comparing Aramaic and Greek Versions from Jewish Antiquity, ed. Jan Joosten David Shepherd and Michaël N. van der Meer, JSJSup 193 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 39.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Your feedback

Genesis 1:2 and LXX Genesis 1:2

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library