m these were derived certain terms which are scarcely
translatable into English. The reader has been further confused by a
poetic and inexact rendering of many Hebrew phrases. The "spirit of
God" is literally the "wind of God," an idea which probably is
historically connected with the Babylonian tale of how Marduk uses the
wind as his instrument in his fight against Tiamat, the monster of the
deep. Tiamat has become Tehom, translated as the "deep."

In spite of the lapse in verse 26, into the language of polytheism, the
priestly account represents a late theological level in which creation
is conceived as the passage of will and word into existence. The
effect is {40} majestic and intensely dramatic in its simplicity. Yet
how else can critical thought portray creation? An omnipotent,
personal God is necessarily conceived as one who has the power to call
things into being. To ask how he does this is meaningless, for it
ignores the stark power which is assumed. In accordance with the
genius of the Semite, then, God was pictured as a monarch whose very
will brought forth without effort. But a little reflection must
convince us that this conception neither makes creation thinkable in
any genuine sense nor proves its occurrence. We have merely attained
the idealization of the creation myth, its most perfect form.

The Christian conception of the creation rests largely upon the Hebrew
account. The uncritical way in which this was studied and accepted,
previous to the rise of modern science and the higher criticism,
remains a marvel to those who are not acquainted with the psychology of
religion. Sanctioned by religion, idealized myth naturally held its
own until something positive arose to dispute it. The Church Fathers,
the scholastics, and the leaders of the Reformation accepted the
stories in Genesis as revelations. They believed that there was a God
and that he had revealed to man what he had done and what his plan of
salvation was. These myths fitted into their view of the world as an
essential and harmonious ingredient of it. What motive would there be
for skepticism? Luther states that "Moses is writing history and
reporting things that actually happened." "God was pleased," says
Calvin, "that a history of the creation should exist." Of course, no
really educated man of to-day can accept this attitude unless he wishes
to sin against his reason. It is {41} unfortunate that there has not
been suffici