Transliterated: Bereshit bara Elohim et ha
shamayim ve'et ha'aretz.
Bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁית): "
In [the] beginning [of something]". Be is a prepositional prefix, reshit is a noun, "beginning". 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
masculinesingular form, so that "he" is implied; a peculiarity of this verb is that it used only of God.[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".
Ha
shamayim 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
Genesis 1:1 forms the basis for the Judeo-Christian doctrine of creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo) and some scholars still support this reading,[5] but most scholars agree that on strictly linguistic and exegetical grounds, this is not the preferred option,[6][7][8] and that the authors of Genesis 1, writing around 500–400 BCE, were concerned not with the origins of matter (the material which God formed into the habitable cosmos), but with the fixing of destinies.[2]
Transliterated: Bereshit bara Elohim et ha
shamayim ve'et ha'aretz.
Bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁית): "
In [the] beginning [of something]". Be is a prepositional prefix, reshit is a noun, "beginning". 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
masculinesingular form, so that "he" is implied; a peculiarity of this verb is that it used only of God.[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".
Ha
shamayim 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
Genesis 1:1 forms the basis for the Judeo-Christian doctrine of creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo) and some scholars still support this reading,[5] but most scholars agree that on strictly linguistic and exegetical grounds, this is not the preferred option,[6][7][8] and that the authors of Genesis 1, writing around 500–400 BCE, were concerned not with the origins of matter (the material which God formed into the habitable cosmos), but with the fixing of destinies.[2]