The Hebrew of this verse begins with the frequently used connecting marker, the consonant waw, usually translated “and.” This marker serves to connect noun phrases as well as noun and verb clauses and whole sentences. Its translation here will depend on the way verse 1 has been dealt with. If “God created…” has been translated as a subordinate time clause, then verse 2 forms the main clause of the sentence, and the connecting marker is not required as a separate element. See Good News Translation. On the other hand, if verse 1 is translated as an independent sentence that serves as a general heading for the entire story, then verse 2 is the beginning of the story, and a rendering of the connecting marker is required that is appropriate for such a beginning. In English Revised Standard Version and Revised English Bible are examples of translations that do not represent the marker, while New Jerusalem Bible and New International Version render it by “Now…,” which is quite natural in this context. In such cases “Now” does not mean “at the present time” but is an English idiomatic way of introducing a new statement. See also comments under and darkness in this verse.
The earth was without form …: verse 2 picks up the word earth from Gen 1.1. “Heaven” is not mentioned again until verse 8, in which the “firmament” is named. The picture is of the entire world, not just dry earth. The Hebrew verb translated was refers to the time when God began his work of creation. Was does not mean that the earth remained in this shapeless state for a long time; nor does it mean that it became such after being something else earlier. If the translator chooses to make verse 1 a dependent clause, was or its equivalent will serve as the verb in the main clause. For example, “At the time when God began to create, the earth was….” If verse 1 is handled as an independent sentence, this verb still refers to the event of creation, and the verb selected should express something like “At that time the earth was…” or “At the beginning of creation the earth had no form….”
Without form and void translates the Hebrew tohu wa bohu, which has been the subject of numerous discussions. The first element, tohu, occurs some twenty times in the Old Testament, while bohu is found only three times, and in each of these it is linked with tohu. Bohu therefore is not an independent word but rather a sound imitation that is sometimes added to the first word. Tohu, which carries the basic meaning, is used to describe the desert in Deut 32.10; Job 6.18; 12.24; Psa 107.40. The term is likewise used to refer to God’s judgments, in which order is turned to chaos or waste in Isa 24.10, and with the same sense the double expression is used in Isa 34.11 and Jer 4.23.
The idea of the expression is that at the beginning the earth was a chaotic waste. In the first three days of creation, God is to give the earth a recognizable shape. Modern translations handle this expression in two main ways:
(a) as two separate descriptive terms connected by “and”; for example, “void and vacant” (Moffatt), “unformed and void” (New International Version), “waste and gloomy” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch);
(b) as a main word with an added descriptive term; for example, “a great emptiness” (Bible en français courant), “formless void” (New Jerusalem Bible), “formless wasteland” (New American Bible), “formless waste” (Anchor Bible), and “had no form” (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy).
Some languages, particularly in Africa, use repeated syllables to describe certain conditions much the way adjectives and adverbs do. Translators in those languages may find that these so-called ideophones are used sometimes to describe an empty and barren place. In other languages it may be necessary to express this thought with a double expression such as in Good News Translation “formless and desolate,” or else “shapeless and empty.” In some languages it may be more natural to use a clause and say, for example, “had yet no real shape and was still empty,” or as a simile “The earth had not yet been set in order and was like a shapeless swamp.” Three examples of descriptive expressions used in recent translations are “the world was different altogether; it was empty without anything in it,” “The earth was not like we see it now. No. It was empty and different altogether,” and “the earth had no backbone.”
And darkness was upon …: Hebrew includes the connective waw “and” here; however, translators should pay particular attention to the way in which these clauses and sentences are joined, so as not to make their language sound unnecessarily like Hebrew. Revised Standard Version, which most often translates these connectives literally, produces an abnormally disjointed flow of discourse in English.
Darkness in this context is associated in sense with the “formless waste” in the preceding clause. The same word is used in Isa 45.19, in which it is associated with chaos, tohu. In Psa 88.6 darkness describes Sheol, the world of the dead, and in Psa 44.19 it is associated with the place of jackals, the desert. Darkness therefore refers to the presence of chaos and the lack of order that existed at the time when God began to create. Was is supplied by Revised Standard Version to make acceptable English.
In languages in which there are words for degrees of darkness, the darkest of darkness should be used. Note Good News Translation “total darkness.” Extreme darkness is sometimes referred to as “a moonless night,” and so you may find it possible to say “It was dark as a moonless night.”
Darkness is understood as the complete absence of light, and in translation it may not be possible to say that darkness was upon something. It may be necessary, therefore, to say, for example, “The seas were in total darkness” or “Where the deep seas were, everything was completely dark.” One common rendering is “Darkness covered over the great water.”
The face of the deep refers to the surface of the deep waters upon which the earth is said to rest later on in Gen 7.11; 8.2; 49.25. Some translations take the deep to refer to a deep place; for example, Moffatt, New English Bible, and Traduction oecuménique de la Bible have “abyss.” However, the sense is more likely to be the deep waters of the unformed or surging oceans. Therefore Good News Translation translates “raging ocean,” Bible en français courant “primitive ocean,” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “floods,” and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “deep sea.” Good News Translation has restructured the last part of verse 2 so as to make a passive clause with the emphasis on the “raging ocean.”
Face of the deep may sometimes be translated “the big seas,” “the deep oceans,” or “the deep waters.” In languages in which very large bodies of water are unknown, it may be necessary to speak of the “the big rivers” or “the big lakes.”
The Spirit of God translates the Hebrew ruach ʾelohim; as the Good News Translation footnote shows, this phrase can be translated as “the power of God,” “a wind from God,” or “an awesome wind.” Some see it necessary to translate as Spirit of God, as they interpret this to mean the Holy Spirit. However, this is to impose New Testament thought on the Old Testament usage. The rendering “spirit of God” (Revised English Bible, Moffatt) may be taken in the sense of the person of God, based on parallel expressions such as “spirit of Zerubbabel” (Hag 1.14); this is just another way of speaking of Zerubbabel, and so “spirit of God” can be taken to mean the same as “God.” The translation “wind” takes ruach in another of its common meanings. In “mighty wind” (New English Bible) ʾelohim is used not as a noun but as a descriptive term with the sense of “powerful, awesome.” In a similar usage in Gen 23.6, the Hittites speak of Abraham as nasiʾ ʾelohim “mighty prince.” See also Gen 30.8; Exo 9.28 (“[mighty] thunders”); Jonah 3.3 (“exceedingly great city”). In the expression “wind from God” (New Jerusalem Bible), ʾelohim is understood as the one who causes the wind.
All of these renderings are possible. However, you should consider certain factors in deciding which to use. If you are translating into a language in which many speakers have access to a major language Bible, it may be desirable to follow the usage of that translation. In any event it is advisable to offer one or more alternatives in a footnote. Translators are free to follow any of the suggestions supported above. In some languages it is difficult to express “spirit of God,” since God is thought of normally as a spiritual being already, without adding this word. In such cases it may be clearer to speak of “a mighty wind,” “power of God,” “wind coming from God,” or simply “God.”
Was moving over the face of the waters: the word translated was moving is sometimes rendered “brooded,” suggesting a parallel with other ancient stories of creation, in which a bird hatches an egg which is the world. However, the same root is used in Deut 32.11 of eagles “hovering, fluttering” over their young, and according to Anchor Bible the same root occurs in Ugaritic meaning “to be in movement.” Accordingly the picture is that of the spirit of God, or a wind from God, “sweeping, flying, moving” over the waters. Moving is a general word in English that does not suggest the particular kind of movement likely to be involved here. If the translator has used something like “wind from God” in the previous clause, an appropriate verb must be used here, which in English may be “swept, blew, raged.” One translation expresses the sense like this: “The spirit of God was continually going and coming above the water.”
Face of the waters is equivalent in meaning to face of the deep, both referring to the surface of the stormy and wild oceans that covered the world.
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
For the concept of “darkness” see also John Roberts’ Biblical Cosmology: The Implications for Bible Translation in Journal of Translation 2013/2, p. 1ff .