Out of the water . Again no article. Or, possibly, with reference to the original liquid condition of the earth - without form and void . Omit the article. Dia has its usual sense here, not as Rev., amidst, but by means of.
Expositors are much divided as to the meaning.
This is the view of Huther, Salmond, and, substantially, Alford. Lit., the then world . The word for world is literally order, and denotes the perfect system of the material universe. Only here in New Testament. Cataclysm is derived from it.