NOTES for Gen 1:1-13
When reading the poem about the creation of the world, its distinctive drama immediately stands out. Indeed, on the first day the whole world is permeated by the light of God's presence, which in the Yahwist tradition is known by the name "the glory of Yahweh" or "the glory of the Lord." It accompanies the people throughout all their history; and on the first day, according to the sacred writer, the whole world shines with this light, and darkness has no place in it. Then, on the second day, water overwhelms the world, the very water spoken of in the introduction to the poem, in those first two verses that precede the description of the six days of creation. But in the introduction water appears only in the second verse, where the earth is separated from heaven; in the first verse, where it forms one whole with heaven, there is no water. And yet water is a symbol of chaos and of the dark powers opposed to God: so it is in all the mythological worlds of all ancient peoples, and so it is in the Bible. And then it turns out that the creation of the world as we know it today was not simple or easy. It took place despite the resistance of those powers opposed to God that tried to hinder Him in carrying out His plans, perhaps long before the appearance not only of man, but also of the world in which we live today. And in due time, the human being was inevitably to become a participant in this confrontation.