וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃
E a aretz estava desolada e vazia, e havia escuridão sobre a face do tehom, e o ruach de Elohim pairava sobre a face das águas.
On the Giants
[22] Nay, never would it have come to them save to convict those who choose the base instead of the noble. Now the name of the “spirit of God” is used in one sense for the air which flows up from the land, the third element which rides upon the water, and thus we find in the Creation-story “the spirit of God was moving above the water” (Gen. 1:2), since the air through its lightness is lifted and rises upwards, having the water for its base.
On the Giants
§ 22. The air which flows up from the land. This is explained in De Somn. i. 144, where Jacob’s ladder which reached from earth to heaven is interpreted as the air, τὰς γὰρ ἀναδιδομένας ἐκ γῆς ἀναθυμιάσεις (rising vapours) λεπτυνομένας ἐξαεροῦσθαι συμβέβηκεν ὤστε βάσιν μὲν και ῥίζαν ἀέρος εἶναι γῆν. κεφαλὴν δὲ οὔρανον. The similar statement about the water which follows here is meant to explain Gen. 1:2, not to exclude the fact that earth also is a βάσις.
On the Account of the World's Creation
[32] Right too is his statement that “darkness was above the abyss” (Gen. 1:2). For in a sense the air is over the void, inasmuch as it has spread over and completely filled the immensity and desolation of the void, of all that reaches from the zone of the moon to us.