Chapter I.
Opinion, as Petavius there obſerves. It is a pretty Conceit of Theophilus Antiochenus. L.II. ad Autolychum, That the Heavens are mentioned before the Earth, to ſhow that God's Works are not like ours: For he begins at the top, we at the bottom: That is, he firſt made the firſt Stars and all beyond them, (ſo I take the word Heaven here to ſignifie) for they had a beginning, as well as this lower World, though they do not ſeem to be comprehended in the ſix days Work, which relates only to this Planetary World, as I may call it, which hath the Sun for its Center. And thus Philo underſtood the firſt word Bereſchith, in the beginning, to reſpect the order wherein things were created. God began his Creation with the Heaven, as the moſt noble Body, and then proceeded to the Earth; an account of which follows.
Verſe 2. Ver. 2. And the Earth was without form, &c.] Some connect this Verſe with the foregoing, by tranſlating the firſt Verſe in this manner, When God firſt created, or began to create, the Heaven and the Earth, the Earth was without form, &c. That is, at firſt he only created a rude Matter of thoſe things, which afterwards were faſhioned as we now ſee them.
Without form.] A confuſed, indigeſted heap, without any order or ſhape.
And void.] Having no Beaſts, nor Trees, nor Herbs, nor any thing elſe, wherewith we now behold it adorned.
So theſe two words, Tohu Vabohu, are uſed in Scripture, where we meet with them (which is not often) for confuſion and empitneſs, XXXIV. Iſaiah 11. IV. Jer. 23. Being a deſcription of that which the Ancients called the CHAOS (of which the Barbarians had a Notion, no leſs than the Greeks) wherein