Genesis 1:1 Explained

Genesis 1:1 is the first verse of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles and the opening of the Genesis creation narrative.

Text

The Hebrew is as follows:

• Vocalized:
• Transliterated: Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz.

1. Bereshit : "In [the] beginning [of something]". Be is a prepositional prefix, reshit is a noun, "beginning". The definite article ha (i.e., the Hebrew equivalent of "the") before reshit is missing, but implied.
2. bara : "[he] created/creating". The word is in the masculine singular form, so that "he" is implied; a peculiarity of this verb is that it used only of God.
3. Elohim : the generic word for God, whether the God of Israel or the gods of other nations; it is used throughout Genesis 1, and contrasts with the phrase YHWH Elohim, "God YHWH", introduced in Genesis 2.
4. et : a particle used in front of the direct object of a verb, in this case "the heavens" and "the earth", indicating that these are what is being "created".
5. Hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz : "the heavens and the earth"; this is a merism, a figure of speech indicating the two stand not for "heaven" and "earth" individually but "everything"; the entire cosmos.

It can be translated into English in at least three ways:

1. As a statement that the cosmos had an absolute beginning ("In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth").
2. As a statement describing the world's condition when God began creating ("When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was untamed and shapeless").
3. Taking all of Genesis 1:2 as background information ("When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth being untamed and shapeless, God said, Let there be light!").

Analysis

Genesis 1:1 forms the basis for the Judeo-Christian doctrine of creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo). Some scholars still support this reading, but most agree that on strictly linguistic and exegetical grounds this is not the preferred option, and that the authors of Genesis 1, writing around 500–400 BCE, were concerned not with the origins of matter (the material which God formed into the habitable cosmos), but with the fixing of destinies.

See also

• • Parashat Bereshit
• Apollo 8 Genesis reading while in lunar orbit, December 24, 1968

References

Bibliography

• Book: Bandstra , Barry L. . Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. 1999. Wadsworth Publishing Company. 0495391050.
• Book: Blenkinsopp , Joseph . Joseph Blenkinsopp. Creation, Un-Creation, Re-Creation: A Discursive Commentary on Genesis 1–11. 2011. T&T Clarke International. 9780567372871.
• Book: Clifford. Richard J. Creatio ex Nihilo in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. Anderson . Gary A. . Bockmuehl. Markus . Markus Bockmuehl. Creation ex nihilo: Origins, Development, Contemporary Challenges. 2017. University of Notre Dame. 9780268102562.
• Book: Day , John . From Creation to Abraham: Further Studies in Genesis 1-11 . John Day (biblical scholar). Bloomsbury Publishing . 2021 . 978-0-567-70311-8 .
• Book: Nebe. Gottfried. Creation in Paul's Theology. Hoffman. Yair. Reventlow. Henning Graf.

  he:יאיר הופמן (חוקר המקרא)

  . Henning Graf Reventlow. Creation in Jewish and Christian Tradition. 2002. Sheffield Academic Press. https://books.google.com/books?id=fmatAwAAQBAJ&q=%22Neither+in+Genesis+1-3%22&pg=PA119. 9780567573933.
• Book: Waltke , Bruce K. . Bruce Waltke. An Old Testament Theology. Zondervan. 2011. 9780310863328.
• Book: Walton , John H. . John H. Walton. Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible. Baker Academic. 2006. 0-8010-2750-0.