Genesis 1:1
| Genesis 1:1 | |
|---|---|
1:2 → | |
 The first chapter of Genesis (B'reshit in Hebrew) written on an egg in the Israel Museum | |
| Book | Book of Genesis |
| Hebrew Bible part | Torah |
| Order in the Hebrew part | 1 |
| Christian Bible part | Old Testament |
| Order in the Christian part | 1 |
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
[edit]The Hebrew is as follows:
- Vocalized: בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ
- Transliterated: Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz.
- Bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁית): "In [the] beginning [of something]". Be is a prepositional prefix, resh is a noun, "head". The definite article ha (i.e., the Hebrew equivalent of "the") before reshit is missing, but implied.[1]
- bara (בָּרָא): "[he] created/creating". The word is in the masculine singular form, so that "he" is implied; this verb is used only for the God of Israel.[2]
- Elohim (אֱלֹהִים): 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.
- et (אֵת): 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".
- Hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz (הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ): "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.[3]
It can be translated into English in at least three ways:
- As a statement that the cosmos had an absolute beginning ("In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth").
- 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").
- 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!").[4]
Analysis
[edit]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,[5] but most agree that on strictly linguistic and exegetical grounds this is not the preferred option,[6][7][8] and that the authors of Genesis 1 were concerned not with the origins of matter (the material which God formed into the habitable cosmos), but with the fixing of destinies.[2]
See also
[edit]
- Genesis 1:2
- Parashat Bereshit
- Apollo 8 Genesis reading while in lunar orbit, December 24, 1968
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ Blenkinsopp 2011, pp. 30–31.
- ^ a b Walton 2006, p. 183.
- ^ Waltke 2011, p. 179.
- ^ Bandstra 1999, pp. 38–39.
- ^ Day 2021, p. 3.
- ^ Blenkinsopp 2011, p. 30.
- ^ Nebe 2002, p. 119.
- ^ Clifford 2017, p. unpaginated.
Bibliography
[edit]- Bandstra, Barry L. (1999). Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Wadsworth Publishing Company. ISBN 0495391050.
- Blenkinsopp, Joseph (2011). Creation, Un-Creation, Re-Creation: A Discursive Commentary on Genesis 1–11. T&T Clarke International. ISBN 9780567372871.
- Clifford, Richard J (2017). "Creatio ex Nihilo in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible". In Anderson, Gary A.; Bockmuehl, Markus (eds.). Creation ex nihilo: Origins, Development, Contemporary Challenges. University of Notre Dame. ISBN 9780268102562.
- Day, John (2021). From Creation to Abraham: Further Studies in Genesis 1-11. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-567-70311-8.
- Nebe, Gottfried (2002). "Creation in Paul's Theology". In Hoffman, Yair [in Hebrew]; Reventlow, Henning Graf (eds.). Creation in Jewish and Christian Tradition. Sheffield Academic Press. ISBN 9780567573933.
- Waltke, Bruce K. (2011). An Old Testament Theology. Zondervan. ISBN 9780310863328.
- Walton, John H. (2006). Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible. Baker Academic. ISBN 0-8010-2750-0.