Without form...

Since the “before" picture deals with absence of order, it is easy to conclude that bārā’ pertains to order, as it often demonstrably does. Absence of order describes non-existence; to bārā’ something brings it into existence by giving it a role and a function in an ordered system. This is not the sort of origins account that we would expect in our modern world, but we are committed to reading the text as an ancient document. In this view, the result of bārā’ is order. The roles and functions are established by separating and naming (in the Bible as well as in the ancient Near East). These are the acts of creation. They are not materialistic in nature, and they are not something that science can explore either to affirm or to deny.—The Lost World of Adam and Eve, p. 30