That’s very interesting. To the modern Christian the opposite of creation is nothingness, but in Genesis it reads that God created the world from some pre-existing matter.
For the ancient Near East mastering chaos, a malevolent force, was the height of power. God, creating order, did just that, no?
“To the modern Christian the opposite of creation is nothingness, but in Genesis it reads that God created the world from some pre-existing matter.”
I wouldn’t know about the original version of the Bible, but the one I know starts like this:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness...”
Orthodox belief has always held that God created the universe “ex nihilo,” or out of nothing. The “chaos” or unformed matter of which you speak sounds heretical. More like Platonic philosophy or Hesiod than Christian doctrine.