In What Beginning?
The very first verse in the Bible reveals the power of presupposition about the Genesis account of creation. Everyone knows this verse,
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The Bible claims to be the very words of God (Rom 3:1-2), and I think it can be safely assumed that God is able to communicate accurately to those who read His words. As I read Genesis 1:1, a question immediately occurs to me—In the beginning of . . . what?
Translations of the original Hebrew text speak of “the” beginning with the definite article, “the.” Therefore it is naturally assumed that the text refers to the very specific beginning of the only world we have ever known and with which we are familiar—it must be “the beginning” of our Planet Earth and its surrounding cosmos.
Every translation that I have come across uses essentially the same wording and refers to God’s beginning with the definite article—it is “the” beginning. But in the original Hebrew text, and in the Septuagint Greek translation by 70 Jewish scholars 200 years before Christ, the definite article “the” is absent. The text actually reads,
“In beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
The insertion of the definite article, “the,” implies that it is a definite, or specific, beginning referred to, which must be “the” beginning of that with which we are already familiar by long experience—the beginning of this fallen world we now inhabit. The New Testament translators continue this view in John 1:1,
John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word . . .”
But John’s quote here from the Septuagint Greek translation (LXS) also does not have the definite article and actually reads,
John 1:1 In beginning was the Word . . .
There can be little doubt that Genesis and the Gospel of John confirm that God, in beginning His work of creation, created the heavens and the earth, but which heavens and earth? Virtually everyone assumes that this text refers to our present heavens and earth. But is this a valid assumption? If it is, we are confronted with some difficult questions in addition to the confounding conundrum that I have mentioned above.
For instance, if God’s very good creation (Genesis 1:31) is the subject of our assumption, how do we explain the extensive death dealing and predatory mechanisms of the natural creatures that fill and define all of creation in our world? The biblical picture of God’s good creation presided over by His Messiah is of peaceful association between predator and prey (Isaiah 11:1-9); and in His good creation death is not present.
Is our death ridden world one and the same with the “very good” creation described in Genesis 1? If so, then at the fall of man there had to be widespread unnatural and miraculous changes in the forms and instincts of every living creature on the planet to account for the bloody tooth and claw, death-saturated, decomposing and regenerating natural world we see today. Is such an abrupt and extensive transformation of all life forms easier to accept than that God created everything “very good” in His eternal realm, but because of human sin put the first man and woman out of His very good Paradise (Garden) into this alternative world of death that we presently inhabit?
According to the familiar translation, the object of God’s creative power in this first verse is clearly “the heavens and the earth.” After all, what other possible beginning could be the focus of the text? But the Bible speaks of heaven and earth in other contexts. The first (the present heavens and Planet Earth in our mutual human experience) heaven and earth will pass away and a new (new to our mutual human experience) heaven and earth will come from God with the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem.
The Bible speaks throughout of more than one created realm of God—the Paradise where God dwells in the glory of His eternal present, which is referred to as “a new heavens and new earth” (Revelation 21:1-2), and the fallen earth and heavens that are our present domicile. The Bible says that Satan was cast down (Revelation 12:7-9), out of the dwelling place of God, into our current domicile , which is passing away and destined for destruction (Matthew 5:18; 24:35). But there is a “new heavens and new earth” for those who trust God for salvation through Jesus Christ, where Satan will not be present. This “new creation” is “new” to believers in the sense that they have not experienced it before. You are all familiar with this concept of “newness” if you have ever bought a “used” car. When you say that you have a “new” car—it is “new” to you, but not new in the sense that it is “brand new” and was never driven by an owner before you bought it.
If the Bible mentions more than one heaven and earth, is it unreasonable to ask if there might be other possible subjects of God’s “beginning” in this first verse of Genesis. I can think of at least one other Biblical sense of beginning. The sense referred to here could be the beginning of God’s eternal plan to create a people who, with Christ the Son of God and Son of Man, inherit all His glory and abide with God and exercise all the abilities that He intends for them.
Such a beginning is surely compatible with the whole counsel of Scripture. God’s beginning surely includes Christ as Savior of the people He desires for Himself. And just as surely beginning with Christ includes the very good world of Paradise where God the Son has perfect and unimpaired relationship with His faithful children. So perhaps our present physical world was not the first item on God’s agenda of creation. Ultimately all people that He creates will be either in paradise with God and Christ or separated from them in a world (Hell) apart, and this promise of God supports the concept of more than one created realm of “heaven and earth.”
In the translation of Hebrew, the indefinite article “a, an” can be inserted at the discretion of the translator when the definite article, “the,” is absent. But that is not done by the many different translators of Genesis 1:1. Rather the definite article “the” is inserted where it is not present in the original Hebrew text. This insertion is according to our common presumption that the Bible is informing us in Genesis 1 of the creation of our present time bound world.
But in the original Hebrew text, we have only, “In beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This seminal statement does not definitely identify a specific heavens and earth with the definite article. Is it appropriate for us to insist that such language specifically refers to our present fallen heavens and earth? Shall we limit God’s creative powers to our geocentric way of looking at things? May He not create more than we presently see? Is His purpose in creating not more complex than we can imagine?
The Hebrew definite article is h (pronounced “hey”), and is appended as a prefix to the word it is associated with. This prefix is absent from the Hebrew word “beginning” (reshit) in Genesis 1:1. The equivalent passage in John 1:1 also reads “in beginning” (en arche) with no modifying Greek definite article ‘o (pronounced “ha”). The lack of specificity, as defined by absence of the definite article “the” in these seminal passages means that we cannot automatically assume they are referring to the creation of our familiar environment, although that is what most writers about Genesis 1:1 generally do (for example, see John Lennox’s excellent review of Genesis and science in Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According To Genesis and Science, p. 139, Zondervan 2011). But I think that God’s creation and creativity are not confined by our limited perspective. God may have created, and still be creating, beyond what we think we “know,” as Paul implies in 1 Corinthians 2:9.
1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV) However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived“– the things God has prepared for those who love him
Further, in regard to beginning (reshit), Hebrew lexicons reveal several nuances of meaning:
“The primary meaning is “first” or “beginning” of a series. This term may refer to the initiation of a series of historical events (Gen 10:10; Jer 26:1) but it also refers to a foundational or necessary condition as the reverence or fear of God (Psa 111:10; Prov 1:7) and the initiation, as opposed to the results, of a life (Job 8:7; Job 42:12). It is used frequently in the special sense of the choicest or best of a group or class of things, particularly in reference to items to be set aside for God’s service or sacrifice. The “first fruits” (Lev 2:12; Lev 23:10; Neh 12:44) and “choicest” (Num 18:12) fruits are so distinguished.” (RL Harris, GL Archer Jr, and BK Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Moody Press, 1980).
The initial words of the gospel of John suggest a beginning in the special sense noted in the above definition of “the choicest or best of class,” when they refer to beginning with the Word, Christ. Remember as you read the text, the definite article “the” is not in the Greek original text, as I have indicated in this quote from the New American Standard translation by striking out the article.
John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was in the beginning with God. (3) All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
Since John is clearly rephrasing the first verse of Genesis in light of the New Covenant, we might suspect the Genesis beginning to be Christ and His creation of Paradise.
Considering the biblically described two creations (Paradise and our present world), I will begin with the biblically described world of Paradise. In many cultures and traditions there is a concept of paradise as a place after death where human virtues are rewarded. But in the Bible, Paradise is the eternal realm where God is personally present and directly accessible to His people. I think Paradise is also the realm created by God for His people and described in the opening chapters of Genesis.
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