Genesis 1:2

Chapter I (The Six Days of Creation)

• Vulgate Text: Genesis 1:1-31 — Full Vulgate text quoted

  "2. And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved over the waters."

• Verse 2: And the earth was without form and void — Commentary on tohu vevohu: earth was empty of inhabitants, plants, beauty

  "In Hebrew it reads, the earth was tohu vevohu, that is, the earth was a solitude, or emptiness and void: because the earth was empty of human beings and cattle"

• Verse 2: And the earth was without form and void — The Spirit of the Lord is the Holy Spirit, brooding over the waters and imparting generative force

  "Thirdly, most fittingly and fully, the Spirit of the Lord is the Holy Spirit proceeding from God the Father and the Son, and by His own power, presence, and might breathing a warm breeze upon the waters."

• Verse 2: And the earth was without form and void — Hebrew merachephet explained as hovering like a bird over eggs

  "WAS BORNE. -- For "was borne," the Hebrew is merachephet, which, as St. Basil, Diodorus, and Jerome testify in the Hebrew Questions on Genesis, refers to birds when, hovering over their eggs and chicks, they gently balance themselves"

• Verse 2: And the earth was without form and void — Allegorically, the Holy Spirit broods over the waters of baptism

  "Allegorically, the Holy Spirit is here signified as brooding, as it were, over the waters of baptism, and by them bringing us to birth and regenerating us, says St. Jerome, Epistle 83 to Oceanus."