Gen 1:1-2:3
1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
Paul
There was nothing, and then God created the formless and void earth; we are also introduced to the waters.
"In the beginning God created the Heavens AND the Earth" could easily apply to the entire Universe. Day "one" has not started. It is a summary statement.
Paul
Note the first reference is to the heavens and the earth, and then the next reference is to the waters only. Where is the earth? Not specified. The waters, however, are to be identified at this stage with the heavens. There isn't anything else.
Wrong the text does not "say Heavens - and there was not anything else". Your are "reading into the text" - but you can't make a teaching out of what "it does not say".
Paul -
There is nothing really to distinguish location; there is only the water. Water, of course, is shapeless and adapts itself to whatever shape it's container has. Before there is anything to give it shape, all is undefined.
2 Peter 3:5 For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, NAS
Paul
In Peter's interpretation of this day, it would appear that the very water itself is what became dry land in this process.
Peter flatly contradicts your Bible-lessening model by saying "NO prophecy of scripture is a matter of one person's interpretation. Holy men of old Moved by the Holy Spirit - Spoke from God".
Why toss out BOTH the OT AND the NT?
Instead of fighting against the truth of God's Word - believe it - trust it.
Peter tells us the same thing that Moses is telling us in Genesis 1 (the thing that God is telling us in BOTH places). It was formed OUT OF WATER.
Notice the Orion Nebula - the young stars forming within and the free floating planets are emmersed in a vast cloud of "Hydrogen and Oxygen".
At every step - science is forced to admit - it "has only small snippets" of data upon which to base its guesswork so far. The great majority of data is yet to be found.
3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
Paul -
Here nothing is done to the earth or the water; instead, we simply have the creation of light. It is light alone, no source is created; the source is God Himself.
One may "presume from the void of what the text does not say" that the "source is God". Certainly the "creator of the source" is God as the text states. Beyond that - guesswork is prevailing.
What we do know from the text is that the source is "single sided" in terms of its relative position with respect to the earth. We also know that the Earth is rotating on its axis since we have "Evening and Morning" for "ONE day".
Paul
We also have the first day taking place; the Hebrews always counted the beginning of the darkness as the beginning of a day and this they trace back to this very beginning narration of the creation itself.
hmm. Factual and accurate! I am almost shocked!
6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning--the second day.
Paul
Here we have a seperation of the waters. The waters are seperated between that are below the firmament and those that are above the expanse. The expanse is a solid dome that creates a space where there isn't any water. It is our sky. The light comes again, just as before, divinely created by God for the occasion as before. The fact that it is solid is shown first from the derivation of the word and second by how it functions to hold back the water above it. It is pictured as capable of having "windows" in it in later references. The waters above the dome continue to be identified with the heavens that are the abode of God.
And then there is sticking to the text.
The waters are divided. There is water above the atmosphere - but like the first water - we are not informed of its form. Every thing else is "guesswork". Good to divide the guesswork from the word of God - usually.
Notice again - we have rotation of the earth - an Evening and Morning "sequence" - and an ordinal for the day - "Day TWO".
9 Then God said, "Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with seed in them, on the earth"; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
Paul
On the third day, we have form finally given to the earth. The location of the earth turns out to be under the dome of the sky.
I know of now serious Bible student that reads confusion into the first 2 days such that "we don't know the connection between the water, the sky and the earth".
In fact - it is safe to "observe" that Moses knew his audience would "understand" where the "sky is" in relation to earth.
Also facinating that Moses does not equate "earth" with dry land here (is if there is NO earth where there is NO dry land) - JUST as he does not do it in chapter 7.
Paul
God causes dry land to finally appear under the expanse, and sets boundaries for where the seas and land shall be. All the plants are caused to grow out of the ground. There is no real problem about light without the sun, because God is still simply causing the light to come on schedule by His direct action.
No real problem with plant having no sun - for ONE DAY. But if you posit "billions of years with no sun" - (or millions of years, or 1000's of years) etc. - a problem for most of our evolutionist friends.
Paul
At this time, now, we have the waters under the earth
No mention of "Waters under the earth".
But in Genesis 7 we have "Fountains of the great deep".
14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth ";and it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. 17 And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day
Paul
Now we have the lights put into the expanse of the sky. The two great lights, which are the sun and moon of course; and also the stars. These lights now take over the formation of night and day. Seasons are also announced, although of course we'll have to wait for a whole year to unfold to see the seasons come and go in their turns.
There is an obvious parallel between day one and day four. Day one saw the creation of light; day four sees the creation of the objects that now give us light.
It is unfortunate to see some who claim to be literal interpreters of the Bible spoil the beautiful symmetries here by insisting that some stars were created back on day one.
The number of lights is given "TWO" not "a zillion and two". The text tells us that the TWO lights created on Day 4 were "The Sun and the Moon". The added note "He created the stars also" is simply an added comment - and does not specify what number of lights or when those lights were created. It only states that God created THEM JUST as He created the TWO lights for us.
Your guesswork that the atmosphere "OR the water above the expanse" had to hold stars - is not founded in the text.
But as with the other days. We have another "SEQUENCE" of "EVENING and Morning" - one cycle - one rotation of the planet. "Day Four"
Bob