בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ What verse is this? If you read Hebrew, you will instantly know that this is Bereshit 1:1 without the diacritical (vowel and cantillation) markings. All that you see above are the consonants. Can you read it? Well, of course you can, if you already know how it is…
In the beginning, God . . .” Genesis 1:1a NASB God – How do you read those first words of the Tanakh? In Hebrew, berēʾšît bārāʾ ʾĕlōhîm. Most modern Westerners imagine that this is the opening statement of a cosmology, that is, a pre-scientific story of origins. Creationism proceeds from this assumption to propose an…
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 NASB The heavens and the earth – God is in Heaven, right? Well, not exactly. You see, if we believe that God is transcendent, that implies He is other than His creation, and that means Heaven, which is also part of creation, is not His…
In the beginning, God created . . . Genesis 1:1 NASB The – Of course, by now you know that the word here is bere’shiyt. There is no definite article. That means there is no “the” in this text. Try reading the text without the “the” and things change – dramatically. We have already learned…
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 NASB In the Beginning – This was written on January 1st, 2009. Recently a reader questioned something about it, and when I looked at what I wrote 14 years ago, I had to agree. It needed some changes. So, for those of you…
When God started creating, He chose to abdicate control. Genesis 1:1 Skip Moen paraphrase When – “Bereshit, ‘in the beginning,’ describes not the clarities of origin and cause, but the potentialities of purpose.”[1] So writes Avivah Zornberg, reflecting on Rashi’s comment on creation. Potentialities demand alternatives. Things might not work out as we expect, and…
“In the end God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 modified End – Well, of course, it doesn’t read this way. Everyone knows that Genesis 1:1 is about the beginning, not the end. But maybe we need to think of it differently. God always starts what He finishes, and in this case, He…
In the beginning . . . let him go up! Genesis 1:1a – 2 Chronicles 36:23c NASB In the beginning/ go up – These are the first and the last words of the Tanakh: be-rēʾ šît; yāâl. In the beginning God assents to descend, voluntarily creating a universe with agents who are capable of resisting…
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth Genesis 1:1 NASB In the beginning – Did you realize that the very first word in the Hebrew Bible has been the subject of intense theological interpretation rather than translation? You might have noticed that something was amiss when the JPS translation (1985) reads, “When…
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 NASB In the beginning – “The fundamental thought in the Bible is not creation, but God’s care for His creation.”[1] With that in mind, here are some studies of Genesis 1:1 during the last ten years, from newest to oldest, just in case you want…
