In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Before the Universe existed, everything was water.
Astronomy
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The cited passage
What current science says
Before the Big Bang about 13.8 billion years ago, there was no water, no matter, and no space as we know it. Water molecules (H₂O) require hydrogen and oxygen atoms, which didn't form until after the Big Bang. Oxygen wasn't produced until the first stars fused it in their cores billions of years later. Water couldn't exist until long after the universe began — it certainly wasn't the starting point.
What the text says
Genesis 1:1-2 describes the pre-creation state as 'the deep' with waters present before anything else was made, and God's spirit 'moved upon the face of the waters' — implying primordial water preceded all creation.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.