Not a creationist/evolution question! In Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters?

Question

My commentaries say the Hebrew for hovered means in a violent way, almost like hurricane winds. But other sources say God's Spirit hovered like a mother bird brooding over her nest. Which is the correct interpretation? And is the meaning physical or spiritual?

Answer 1

The word "Merachefit" in Hebrew is the breeze an eagle's wings makes when it hovers over the nest just before landing. It is used only one other place in the Torah, but I don't recall where.

Mystically, in this section, the earth is the heart before it recognizes the existance of G-d and the heavens are the mind. If you want to know the meaning of formless and void, go to Jer 4.

What is happening here is the first inkling in the mind that there is a G-d. The concept of Yesh (meaning there is.) This connects the lower with the upper realms and the cycle of discovering G-d can begin.

The spirit of Elohiym in this context is the manifestation of G-d in the physical world.

These are just some of the mystical meanings as I understand them.

Answer 2

I would say like a mother bird brooding over her nest. The scene is the same of God's position after He covered the Earth with a world wide flood in Genesis 1:2 as He was after the second world wide flood which is Noah's flood. God's spirit was hovering over the waters of the deep while Noah and his ark was floating around for a year after the flood. God made the rain stop and made the flood water or sea level start to go down gradually in a non-violent way until dry land reappeared. Noah doesn't record this act of God as being violent such as a hurricane would have been.

Answer 3

Gen 1:2 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.

Of course the words are spiritual.

If you can not understand hovered say it moved.

hovered is past and past participle which means fluttered in the air without moving very far from the same spot

Answer 4

Not hovered. "moved" in KJV (for which my concordance is keyed) Raw-Kaph (resh chet pey) (7363- Strong's) To brood, be relaxed, move flutter shake.-- doesn't sound like a hurricane. My feeling is that YHVH here is talking about physical things, so this is a physical meaning. Keep studying, and praying. YHVH wants to tell you more, but maybe about something else, so don't obsess with this.

Answer 5

Science theorizes that the word hover meant like a helicopter gun ship raining down a shower of flame and death like a dozen mini guns, wounding the earth and causing it to spew stem cells of all kinds abroad on the teeming waters, into the steaming atmosphere and onto the kinda flat earth, whereupon, all manner of veggies and creatures sprang fourth and fifth and populated the far ends of the earth and the leftovers landed in the bowels of the earth creating things that only looked like ancient dinosaurs to test the faith of the believers and unbelievers alike. Verily it was kinda so.

Answer 6

The Hebrew is very revealing. Study the story of Dionysus from Greek Mythology to get better insight to help answer your question.

Answer 7

I believe this to be the Holy Spirit, the third member of the triune God. The Hebrew for this term is:

râchaph
raw-khaf'
A primitive root; to brood; by implication to be relaxed: - flutter, move, shake.

Answer 8

While studying the original language can be helpful, one must never create doctrines from word definitions.

In other words, don't study such things in such depth. Study the scriptures themselves instead.

Answer 9

Too much tequila had him hovering over the waters in the porcelain pool.

Answer 10

o hai! Ceiling Cat rode an invisible bike over teh waterz, for it iz ritted in the LOLCatBible (itz a buk, so it iz troof.) Srsly.

2 Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.

kthxbai.