In the Bible, life begins with breath.
In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over
the face of the waters.
Spirit, Ruach in Hebrew –
the word means wind, like the rush of wind that filled
the house on the day of Pentecost.
And then the
wind formed the formless earth.
God spoke.
And the breath that was God’s
Word began to create. Let there
be…
There is a second version of creation
that follows in the next chapter that is more specific about breathing life into human beings. Then the
LORD God formed a human of
dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the human became
a living being.
