Genesis 1:1

The Hebrew is as follows:

• Vocalized: בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ‎
• Transliterated: Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz.

1. Bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁית‎): "In the beginning of [something]". Be is a prepositional prefix, resh is a noun, meaning 'head'. As a result, this forms part of a genitive phrase, leading to a linguistic and exegetical translation of this word being 'In the beginning of...'.^[1]
2. 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. It concerns the bringing into existence of a functionality, through organisation and the assignment of roles and function, but not the creation ex-nihilo of new material.^[2]
3. 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.
4. 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".
5. 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]

The Greek is as follows:

• Vocalized: ΕΝ ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν.^[4]
• Transliterated: EN archí epoíisen o Theós tón ouranón kaí tín gín.

The Latin is as follows:

• Vocalized: In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram.^[5]

It can be translated into English in at least two 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, taking Genesis 1:2 as background information ("When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was untamed and shapeless...").^[6]

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,^[7] but most agree that on strictly linguistic and exegetical grounds this is not the preferred option,^[8][9][10] 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]

• Genesis 1:2
• Parashat Bereshit
• Apollo 8 Genesis reading while in lunar orbit, December 24, 1968