"In fact, while for the Babylonians, for example, the primordial Chaos (Tiamat) existed ab aeterno, and the generating principle of the powerful Gods to make them a cosmos, instead for the Jews this Chaos (Tehôm ) not only was it something separate and divided from God - existing in itself, outside and apart from the world - but it was a non-entity, something empty and vain, relating to God, before he created the cosmos visible. The hagiographer of Genesis}} would have been annoyed by anyone who had told him that the earth and the waters of this verse were to be considered as an entity not created by God; he would have denied that they are an entity."