I've raised this elsewhere and thought that some here might find it interesting.

Let's begin with with the rendition offered by the Jewish Publication Society (JPS):

• 1:1 In the beginning G-d created the heaven and the earth.
  1:2 Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of G-d hovered over the face of the water.
  1:3 And G-d said: 'Let there be light.' And there was light.

So far so good - especially when you realize that virtually every translation follows suit ... well, almost every translation.

It turns out that the highly respected Stone Edition Tanach renders Genesis 1:1 as ...

• 1:1 In the beginning of God's creating the heavens and the earth

and treats verse two as a parenthetical.

Similarly, we read in Etz Hayim ...

• 1:1 When God began to create heaven and earth
  1:2 -- the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water --
  1:3 God said: "Let there be light"; and there was light.

The commentary notes:
To further clarify the implication of this translation, the commentary turns to verse 2:
Both Alter's The Five Books of Moses and Friedman's Commentary on the Torah fully concur with this rendition.

And there's more. The well respected Jewish sage Rashi writes ...
Finally, while the JPS (1917) uses the 'older' form, the New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text renders the opening line of Genesis as ...

• When God began to create heaven and earth - the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and wind from God sweeping over the water - God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.

There is, therefore, an impressive body of highly authoritative translation that sees Genesis 1:1 as the creation of order our of chaos, and not creation ex nihilo. It was no doubt from this perspective that the author of The Rise of Yawism notes:

• It is important to note that many of Ilu's acts of creation take place in historical time. The inhabited world is already there and so we must conclude that the people of Ugarit believed in a kind of creatio continua, like the Egyptians and the Israelites.

Creation ex nihilo looks very much like a later re-interpretation of the Torah.

I was at a Lubavitch seminar on evolution and creationism about 15 or so years ago, and one thing that one of the speakers mentioned is that the Genesis creation account is actually HaShem's 7th creation, according to the Talmud, with the previous six being only partially destroyed.

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"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."-- Einstein

The Talmud, and particularly the Gemara, is highly creative, post-Biblical interpretation and not particularly relevant to the topic at hand.

I have no idea whether creation ex nihilo is even important in a Jewish frame of reference or if it was a defined doctrine prior to the 1st century.

It became important in a Christian frame of reference as a counter to gnostic conceptions of the cosmos emanating from the Absolute.

Two concepts important to Christianity are tied up with creation ex nihilo:

1. Creation is God's free action. It is not an automatic overflow of God's being as in emanation scenarios. God chooses to create.

2. Matter is neither co-eternal with God nor estranged from God. As part of the created order, matter is not a god in itself. Nor is it any farther removed from God than any other part of the created order, so like all of creation it is good. There is therefore no need to strive to free one's spirit from its material form to be more perfect or nearer God as some religions taught.

btw, I am not sure if you are aware that some Christian translations also use the form "When in the beginning God was creating..." or "in the beginning of God's creation..."

So how Gen. 1:1 is translated does not appear to be an issue for Christian theology vis-a-vis creation ex nihilo.

I expect the assumption is that if Gen. 1:1 depicts a chaos, it is describing the state of the cosmos at a time when it consisted of only the unordered elements of matter. Nevertheless, these elements were still created ex nihilo.

Here's how I see it..... Note: Insertions are mine for presentation and clarity of thought.

The Almighty God Father first created the necessary elements (ex-nihilo) to form/make our universe. After these elments or matters were Created, Jesus, the Son, Made our heavens and earth - thus forming our world for inhabitant thereof.

Genesis 2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created (by the Almighty God Father), in the day that the LORD God (Son) made the earth and the heavens,...

"In the beginning God Created the heaven (Air) and the Earth (Ground). And the Earth (Ground) was without form, (Dust) and void; (Empty) and darkness was upon the face of the deep, (Water) and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

The 3 elements necessary for all physical form are shown... Air, Dust, and Water. Everything which is physical is composed of these 3 elements. The text is correct in showing that the water was not directly created, or spoken into being, because it consists of elements of the Air or Atmosphere. Water is Hydrogen and Oxygen and came from the Atmosphere and is not shown as a separate creation.

This is correct in today's scientific knowledge, but IF the Bible were written by Ancient men, Moses would not have known this. He would have written that in the beginning God created the Air, Dust, and Water, but since God Himself is the Author, He correctly shows that the Atmosphere and Ground were created, and the Water was not a separate creation but instead, came from the Atmosphere.

The actual Physical Making of the first heaven (Garden of Eden) took place on the 2nd day (Gen.1:6-8). Our heaven and earth was formed on the 3rd day.

God Bless

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Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. v2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:1~2

Heres a work on the creation which you may not have read, Its from the book of the ARI "the tree of life"

Behold, that before the emanations were emanated and the creatures were created,

The upper simple light had filled the whole existence.

And there was no vacancy, such as an empty atmosphere, a hollow, or a pit,

But all was filled with simple, boundless light.

And there was no such part as head, or tail,

But everything was simple, smooth light, balanced evenly and equally,

And it was called the Endless Light.

And when upon His simple will, came the desire to create the world and emanate the emanations,

To bring to light the perfection of His deeds, His names, His appellations,

Which was the cause of the creation of the worlds,

He then restricted Himself, in the middle,

Precisely in the center,

He restricted the light.

And the light drew far off to the sides around that middle point.

And there remained an empty space, a vacuum

Circling the middle point.

And the restriction had been uniform

Around the empty point,

So that the space

Was evenly circled around it.

There, after the restriction,

Having formed a vacuum and a space

Precisely in the middle of the endless light,

A place was formed,

Where the emanated and the created might reside.

Then from Endless Light a single line hung down,

Lowered down into that space.

And through that line, He emanated, formed,

Created all the worlds.

Before these four worlds came to be

There was one infinite, one name, in wondrous, hidden unity,

That even for the closest of the angles

There is no attainment in the endless,

As there is no mind that can perceive it,

For He has no place, no boundary, no name.

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"Kabbalah does not let us live our lives in the dust, but elevates our mind to the height of knowledge." Johannes Reuchlin