Creation

In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth.  He created the heaven and the earth not formless and void, but the earth was formless and void nonetheless.  Something must have happened to bring this about.  In response, the Spirit of God brooded over the waters which were not yet divided.  Like a mother bird warming her eggs, or protecting her chicks, the Spirit of God hovered over the water.  From whence came these waters if the earth was formless and void.  A formless earth might well be molten.  Global lava such as would be evident from a planetary collision at an oblique angle would vent vast amounts of steam and water vapor into the atmosphere.  After the impactor’s nickel and iron sank into the earth’s core while lighter silica from the earth’s mantle were strewn into orbit.  In this impact, the earth became tohu ‘a bohu and later the moon was made from the ejecta.   In the interim, the Spirit of God brooded on the waters; but before the separation of the waters above from the waters below the firmament, indeed, before the firmament itself, when darkness was upon the face of the waters.

This is assuming that it is the earth’s waters over which the Spirit of God was hovering.  If the waters in question were the planetary nebula instead, then the brooding of the Spirit of God would have been the seeding event that initiated the process of changing from a slowly rotating disc of gas into a system of objects orbiting the sun.

The book of Genesis starts with two creation stories, told from two perspectives for two different purposes.  What is the derivation of Elohim?  Is this a quirk of the Hebrew language or an emulation of the Sumerian council of the gods, deliberate or otherwise?  Dare we say that this is an early form of polytheism that the Hebrew writers of scripture outgrew or a concept of henotheism that was endemic to pre-civilization nomadic existence?  Or is the expression of God in a plurality merely the result of bad editing?  Elsewhere in the bible, such as in the gospels, the different persons of the single Godhead have conversations without implying separateness beyond distinction and without indications of debate.

On the first day,