example, picture the beginning of creation taking form as a primordial island or hillock rises up out of the watery void. On that mound the creator-god Atum first created himself and then created the other gods by various means. To the contrary, Genesis 1 denies that there was any physical element in existence prior to God’s creative labors. He simply created the universe ex nihilo (“out of nothing”).25 Many scholars argue that the “deep” in Genesis 1:2 is a reference to primordial waters that existed