Which translators? The ones who translated from Hebrew to Latin or the Latin to English? Then there are many other corroborating texts and scriptural references that need to be taken into account. I started studying that back when I was around 17 and I’m now near 63. I started the study with an honest on my knees plea to God to help me understand.
Today it’s much easier because you can access both Greek and Hebrew lexicons on line. Satan is pretty clever at keeping Christians naïve. He’s been at it a long time. The world “that then was” before Genesis 1:1 is the world he deceived and convinced He was God that caused his oust from heaven.
> Which translators?
Tyndale, The KJ translators, Diodati, Almeida, Luther, Cyril, Webster, none of them conveys the sense of this passage that you do.
Consider also expositors like Dr. Henry Morris (Institute of Creation Research).
It must be nice to be a greater scholar than any of them.