01-01

the beginning

This could mean ‘the beginning of all things,’ before anything existed except God.

created

This term here means that God made it from nothing.

the universe

This includes everything that God created on the earth and in the heavens, both visible and invisible things.

the earth

The word earth refers to the whole world that people live on.

dark

It was completely dark. There was no light at all, since God had not yet created light.

empty

God had not yet created anything except for the bare earth covered by water.

he had not yet formed anything in it

There were no distinguishing features–just water covering everything.

God’s Spirit

The Spirit of God, sometimes called the Holy Spirit, was present in the beginning, moving freely over the earth in order to create all that he had planned to do.