Genesis 1:2: There's a LOT Going On.

 So I decided to start an in-depth study of the entire canon of Scripture.  The level of detail I intend to go into means that, given I'm LDS, it will probably mean I won't finish in my lifetime.  Oh well.

So, because the LDS Church focuses on specific books in the "Come Follow Me" program each year, I decided to go with the one we're doing starting in 2026.  That would be the Old Testament.  Fitting, since I'll be doing it chronologically, I suppose.  We start with, of course, Genesis.

It took just 2 verses to find my first rabbit hole.  Take a look at Genesis 1:2.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

So, God created the heaven and the earth in verse 1.  So the Earth, by this point, is a thing that exists.  It is without form and void.   So what does that mean?  Well, "void" means empty, and it didn't have a particular form yet.  We continue.  We learn that darkness was upon the face of the deep.  We also learn that the Spirit of God moved upon the waters.

Ok, so the Earth was formless, void, and had deep water.  We also seem to have the idea of two separate places... the face of the deep and the face of the waters.  I mean, is that what it's saying?  It seems to be, but you don't generally hear people talking about it that way.  Fortunately, we have more information in Abraham 4:2.

2 And the earth, after it was formed, was empty and desolate, because they had not formed anything but the earth; and darkness reigned upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of the Gods was brooding upon the face of the waters.

So we're seeing the use of 2 particular words here.  Darkness "reigned," and the Spirit of the Gods was "brooding."  What seems noteworthy to me is that one would assume that, since (spoiler alert) light has not been made yet, everything would be dark anyway, wouldn't it?  And yet we're specifically saying that there was darkness on the face of the deep, and that it reigned.  So maybe this is some kind of particular darkness... or maybe some other thing we're calling "darkness" and that it reigned upon the face of the deep.  

By contrast, we know that the Spirit of God moved upon the waters... the surface, presumably, since we're differentiating that from the deep.  We also learn that the Spirit of God (or, in the Abraham verse, the Gods) was "brooding" upon the face of the waters.  Dictionary.com defines the term "brood" (when used as a verb) to mean:

1. to sit upon (eggs) to hatch, as a bird; incubate. 

2. (of a bird) to warm, protect, or cover (young) with the wings or body.

3. to think or worry persistently or moodily about; ponder.

I think the one that makes the most sense here is 2. The Spirit of God is covering the face of the waters protectively, maybe.  Any other source?  Yes. We have Moses 2:2.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and I caused darkness to come up upon the face of the deep; and my Spirit moved upon the face of the water; for I am God.

 So there's a new piece of information here.  God caused darkness to come up upon the face of the deep.  Ok, so we have an environment where it must have been dark, since there was not yet a light, but still God needed to cause darkness to come upon the deep.  So darkness must mean something special or different here, but I don't know what.  Or maybe our assumption that the environment itself was "dark" in the usual sense is flawed.  After all, this is the creation of the world.  We can't really assume anything, can we?

So I still have questions, and don't fully understand, but there's obviously a lot going on.  In any case, I'll be keeping this in mind as I proceed.