This is my first post on this forum.
I just wanted to state what I believe is happening in Genesis 1:1.
The KJV is my preferred translation as it uses the singular 'Heaven' instead of plural 'Heavens'.
In other words,
in the beginning God created only ONE of the Three Heavens .
Because only one of the Three Heavens were created at that point, our Universe didn't even exist yet.
Thus, Earth was 'without form and void' because one can't have an Earth without a Universe to put it in.
Another way of explaining what Earth was like at that point was that Earth only existed in the form of the Bottomless Pit.
I believe the Bible calls this Bottomless Pit 'Waters'... as in the Abyss.
The Heaven that was created is what the Bible calls the 'Sea of Glass'.
Thus, the way I interpret Genesis 1:1 is something like this...
"In the beginning, God created the Sea of Glass and the Abyss."
The rest of the Creation Account is all about God creating the other two Heavens and eventually Planet Earth.
Edited by Base12, : No reason given.