Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. WEB
Dr. Joel Beeke, the president of the Puritan Theological Seminary has summarized Genesis 1:1 by breaking it down into three parts. The first is that the eternal God (who has always existed) has started something new in time and space. Second, it is God alone who does this. Finally, everything that exists is dependent upon Him. This is reminiscent of Aquinas whose summary of the first three chapters of Genesis was that God created something good, humans are a special part of this creation and that something happened to screw things up.
Note that there is a period at the end of verse 1 above. While this is the case for nearly all the most major translations in use today, there are some that end verse 1 with either a comma or a dash. (See https://biblehub.com/genesis/1-1.htm for this verse from roughly 39 translations of Genesis). So does Genesis 1:1 stand on its own or is it a dependent clause based upon what comes next? If it is not a free standing thought then when God begins to create there is something else already out there that is chaotic. This is a recent controversy among some scholars that Dr. Joshua Wilson takes up at: https://answersingenesis.org/hermeneutics/have-we-misunderstood-genesis-11/ so click on the link or copy it into your web browser to read the article. At the risk of over-simplification, the primary argument of these modern scholars is that these earlier translators were incompetent and just not as “smart” as modern day translators.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and apart from Him nothing was made that has been made. NHEB
Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. NHEB
The Gospel writers assume you know your Bible as here John and Matthew show the Jesus story as touching on Genesis as the mission of Jesus is to restore what was lost in Genesis. Notice how God creates in Genesis by speaking and John refers to Jesus as the “Word”. Paul’s take on creation shows up in Colossians:
Colossians 1:15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things have been created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. NHEB
It is clear that these three apostles understood creation in the traditional translation of Genesis 1:1 and were not wringing their hands over such things as dependent and substantive clauses.
Genesis describes God’s creation as good but for some, that isn’t what we see in verse 2. Is God struggling with some other force that is equal to Himself or does something happens that messes everything up? Where does this chaos and darkness come from?
Within creation, there are two dimensions – the spiritual and the physical (the visible and the invisible). In Genesis 3, we will see the serpent who is able to talk Adam and Eve into disobeying God. Like everything else, the serpent is one of God’s creations and as such, we can’t start by saying that God made the serpent bad. Instead, consider the creation of angels who are meant to be ministering agents for God and the subsequent rebellion and fall from grace for some of these angels. (Viewed by many as occurring between verse 1 and verse 2). 2Peter talks about the angels who sinned and were chained and cast into Tartarus (or lower Hell). There is debate about whether Peter and Jude, who also talks about this, are referring to Genesis 6 or Genesis 1. For our purposes at the moment, this is irrelevant as the important point is that angels have the ability to sin and some have chosen to go down that path.
Isaiah 14.12 How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn. How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low. 13 You said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north. 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High.” 15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit. NHEB
Here we are talking about a king but Babylon is also a way of talking about the world that is opposed to God. Isaiah is likely talking about a real king but at the same time begins to talk about the bigger picture and relates this king as being a significant presence in that bigger picture.
Ezekiel 28:13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl. Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. In the day that you were created they were prepared. 14You were the anointed cherub who covers: and I set you, [so that] you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you. 16 By the abundance of your traffic they filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I have cast you as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you before kings, that they may see you. NHEB
The starting point of this chapter in Ezekiel is the King of Tyre, Like Babylon, Tyre (along with nearby Phoenician city, Sidon) have a checkered history as they were wealthy trading cities but were morally and spiritually derelict. Jesus mentions Tyre (and Sidon) in Matthew 11 as he is denouncing the cities that witnessed so many miracles and yet did not repent. He tells them that had those same miracles been performed in Tyre and Sidon that they would have repented in ashes and sackcloth. Like the Isaiah text, people will take this text back to Genesis 1:1 and see this fall happening with some of God’s created angels between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2.