The linguistic and traditional understanding of Genesis 1:1 is that God
created the primeval realm of water, that before that creation, there was
total nothingness (as far as the physical universe is concerned). This whole
argument claiming that there was pre-existing matter is an attempt to
shoehorn Babylonian and other ANE myths into Genesis.
Further, your claim that "Tahom" is an allusion to Babylonian myth could
just as well be understood that the Babylonian myth was an allusion to a
Hebrew original, one that was not written on pottery, clay, stone or other
durable materials, but was written just the same.
Yitzhak: as for that site you linked to below, how often do I have to answer
that Genesis 1 is not poetry, nor a hymn, rather it is prose that lists day
by day the activities that were accomplished each day? As such, it resembles
more a ship's log than poetry. That site violates basic rules of exegesis.
Rather it does a lot of eisegesis.
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