At issue: specifically “when” did the ‘chaos’ referred to in Genesis 1 occur relative to the beginning of the first day of Creation? Three views are illustrated:

• Chaos after an original creation (“Gap theory”)
• Chaos before the original creation (“Eternal matter”)
• Chaos as the first stage of the beginning of creation (“Traditional view”)

The “gap theory” has also been called the restitution theory; the “eternal matter” view has also been called the “precreation chaos theory”; the traditional view is sometimes called the “initial chaos theory.”