Genesis 1:1

The first chapter of B'reshit, or Genesis, written on an egg in the Israel Museum . Genesis 1:1 is the first Bible verse of the first chapter in the Book of Genesis , and contains the first words of the Bible . The verse begins the account of creation according to Genesis and its translation and interpretation is a major theological issue. The first word in the original Hebrew is בְּרֵאשִׁית, transliterated as Bereishit , B'reishit , or Breishis . In Judaism it begins the Torah portion ( parshah ) Bereishit , which ends at Genesis 5:31 . In Hebrew, בְּרֵאשִׁית translates literally as "At/in [a] head [of]," implying "in [a] beginning." The three middle letters of the Hebrew alphabet within the word בְּרֵאשִׁית, Bereishit , are ר, א, and ש, which are pronounced as reish when part of the word, but can also be read as rosh when read without the vowels . Rosh is the word for "head" as spelled and pronounced in Hebrew (as in Rosh Hashanah , ראש השנה, ro'sh hash-shānāh , "the head (beginning) [of] the year".) The word "Genesis" in English is from the Greek word Γένεσις, having the meanings of "birth," "creation," "cause," "beginning," "source," and "origin."

The first chapter of B'reshit, or Genesis, written on an egg in the Israel Museum . Genesis 1:1 is the first verse of the first chapter in the Book of Genesis , and the opening of the Genesis creation narrative . In Hebrew script it reads: בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ (7 words/28 letters, English transliteration: Bereisheet bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz ). 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 the earth ). As a statement describing the condition of the world when God began creating ( When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was untamed and shapeless... ). Similar to the second, but taking the whole of verse 2 as background so that the main assertion is in verse 3 ( When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth being untamed and shapeless, God said... ). By the 2nd century CE the first translation had become the dominant one, and was crucial in developing the concept that God created the universe out of nothing ( creation ex nihilo ); however, modern religious scholars believe that the second may be closer to the original meaning. The idea that God created the world out of nothing ( creatio ex nihilo ) is central today to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but it is not found directly in Genesis, nor in the entire Hebrew Bible. The Priestly authors of Genesis 1, writing around 500-400 BCE, had been concerned not with the origins of matter (the material which God formed into the habitable cosmos), but with the fixing of destinies. This was still the situation in the early 2nd century CE, although early Christian scholars were beginning to see a tension between the idea of world-formation and the omnipotence of God. By the beginning of the 3rd century this tension was resolved, world-formation was overcome, and creation ex nihilo had become a fundamental tenet of Christian theology.

First verse of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis Genesis 1:1 is the first verse of the first chapter in the Book of Genesis in the Bible and the opening of the Genesis creation narrative .

First verse of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis Genesis 1:1–5 Genesis 1 verses 1–5 sung in Hebrew as a cantillation Problems playing this file? 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 .