The Spirit of God

How did this nothing of the earth end up the way it is?  This Elohist author explained that God intervened.  He created this world that we see around us.  The ending of the second verse of Genesis explained what happened.  After presenting his view of this nothing world, an amorphous mass of water, he said that the Spirit, וְר֣וּחַ (weruah), of Elohim, אֱלֹהִ֔ים (Elohim), was hovering, מְרַחֶ֖פֶת (merahepet), over, עַל־ (‘al), the face, פְּנֵ֣י (pene), of the waters, הַמָּֽיִם׃ (hammayim).  The Hebrew word for Spirit can also mean a wind or breath.  However, the Greek Septuagint use the words “the Spirit of God, καὶ πνεῦμα θεοῦ (kai pneuma theou)”.  This was a breath, a wind, or the spirit of God.  In either case, it was a divine intervention.  God was breathing or blowing a wind.  The Elohim God was going to insert himself into this formless confused mass of heavens and earth.  God’s Spirit was another way of saying that God was present.  Of course, for Christians, they have interpreted this Spirit of God as the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity.  Suffice it to say, this Elohist author saw this as an intervention of some kind by God, Elohim.  What do you think of the Spirit of God?

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