The Creation, Pt. 1
This is the first of many in-depth teachings and studies of the Torah and other Scriptures. As a student of Scripture myself, I do not adhere to the chapters and verses as beginning or stopping points. However, I do use them as points of reference. Likewise, this will largely be focusing on the creation of all things.
These studies will not be chapter-by-chapter, rather, they will examine the Scriptures in contextual relevance. Take heed, these can be quite lengthy.
Genesis/Bereshit
Most Bibles today call the first book “Genesis” which is a Greek word meaning source, origin, or beginning. However, the Torah (and therefore “Genesis”) was not originally written in Greek, but in Hebrew. In Hebrew, the book is called “Bereshit”. It is often spelled in different ways such as “Barashite” or “B’resheet”. The spelling, when transliterated into English, is not a point of concern. As long as the original pronunciation remains intact, there should be no issues. I will continue to refer to the book as Genesis/Bereshit to start.
Any translation outside of the Hebrew language is, while mostly accurate to the original, an opinion on the actual text. That is why there are so many Versions such as the AMP, CJB, NIV, KJV, etc. Translators will translate the word or sentence, then place them in an order that makes the most sense to them. As an example, let’s start with the first sentence written in the Torah:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Genesis/Bereshit 1:1 (CJB)
Such a beautiful and perfect sentence. I once spent several months in a study-group examining this one verse alone. Maybe you do, but many do not realize the incredible depth of a single line of Scripture. Each word was chosen in a specific order for specific (or a variety of) purposes. While you can read this line and understand it as a narrative; you can compare it to many other themes throughout Scripture.
SIDE NOTE – I would like to recommend reading Hebraic Journal, Entry 2: My rules for studying Scripture.
Let’s examine this line thoroughly. First, let’s look at the Hebrew:
בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ.
In Hebrew, everything is read from right to left. What you see above is Genesis/Bereshit 1:1 (though in the original texts, there were no vowel pointings).
Transliterated:
“Beresheet bara Elohim, et hashamayim ve’et haeretz.”
What fascinates many people is that in Hebrew there are seven words. Seven is a big number in Scripture. A list of sevens throughout Scripture are (but not limited to):
- Seven days of the week
- Seven days of creation
- Seven spirits of God
- Seven moedim/feasts (appointed times)
- Seven-stemmed menorah
- Seven “deadly sins”
- Seven churches of Revelation,
- etc.
So for those who are highly focused on the numerology of Scripture, Genesis/Bereshit 1:1 is most fascinating.
For further consideration – each letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet has it’s own numerical value, as well.
Wording
As you have likely noticed already, the first word is the Hebrew title of this book – Bereshit – means “Beginning”. In Bereshit 1:1, the word order, from Hebrew to English, is, “Beginning created God the Heavens and the Earth”. Regardless of wording, you still get the basic message; but that’s not how English sentences are typically structured. In the CJB, the line says, “In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth”.
The KJV removed the plurality of “heavens” while the MSG, CEB, and GNT structure things very differently:
First this: God created the Heavens and Earth (MSG)
When God began to create the heavens and the earth (CEB)
In the beginning, when God created the universe (GNT)
While the essence is there, they are also very different. For most of our studies, we will stick to the CJB. However, it is important when studying Scripture to either look into the Hebrew, or, read multiple versions.
Line by line – In the beginning, God
Now let’s officially dive into the Word itself.
First, “In the beginning.” That’s right; we are looking at the first three words in English and the first word (singular) in Hebrew – Bereshit.
This is the very start of it all; that is, all of creation. Everything within Nature at one point had a beginning. Nothing is eternal – not even the universe. It all can be traced back to this very account “in the beginning.”
If we add the next word in English, it is “God”. This word is also used in other passages as mighty ruler, mighty one, judge, etc. So, in the beginning – “God”. In the beginning, there was only one entity – one being – before Creation, and that was God Himself. However, in Hebrew the next word is “bara”. This gives us the message “Beginning created”. Like any language, it is not one-to-one translatable. It could mean to say, “In the beginning created”, or, “In the beginning of creation…”. Clearly, it’s easy to get trapped or side-tracked in even trying to understand the first few words of information. But once you are able to internalize this complexity, the rest becomes easier.
In this instance, we are talking about a moment before nature even existed. What is nature? Simply put, nature is space, time, and matter/material. Space is that which you are able to move around in. Time is that which all things within nature are subject to having a beginning, aging, decaying, and eventually dying or coming to an end. Days, weeks, months, years, etc., are all dependent on the nature-specific creation of time. Lastly, matter/materiel being that which is tangible to touch, feel, hold, move, etc.
Think of a rock. It is made of matter and sits within a space as time moves ever onward whereas other elements such as rain, wind, heat, and cold chip away and erode the rock until it is no longer a rock, but is dust or dirt. “In the beginning”, there was no rock, there was no place to set it, and there was no time for the rock to come into being or to come to an end. In the beginning – God.
God Created
Now, we add the next bit of information, “In the beginning God… et.” What is “et”? In Hebrew, this is the Aleph and Tav, the first and last letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, or, Aleph-Bet. The אֵת (et – Aleph, Tav) acts as a pointer to the direct object. In this case, “God created” being the Subject. God created – what? God created et (אֵת ) the heavens and the earth.
There are some that view this as holding a deeper meaning seeing as in Revelation 1 and 22, Yeshua proclaims himself as the “Alpha and Omega” being the first and last letters of the Greek Alphabet. However, being a Hebrew speaking Jew speaking to a Hebrew speaking Jew, the idea is that he would have said, “I am the Aleph and Tav” being the first and last letters of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet.
Whether this is to be a callback to Yeshua’s existence during or before the creation I believe is anyone’s guess, but for now, we will stick to the original intention of what was written (Yeshua being God is an entirely separate subject that would require a study all it’s own to establish one way or another which we will get into at a future time).
The Heavens
I want you to notice that it does not say “Heaven” in the singular, but “the heavens” in the plural.
Within Scripture, you will see this used numerous times, as well as an interesting line from 2 Corinthians 12: 2 that mentions “the third heaven.” Many have attempted to explain this in various different ways. My own understand is that it is where science meets the spiritual.
The first heaven is the space where we all are now. There is oxygen, trees, moisture, etc.
The second heaven is outside of the atmosphere. This is the “outer space”.
The third heaven is a supernatural perhaps which which is outside of nature (supernatural). It is where the throne of God is – a place we cannot enter as we are now. (Ref; 2 Cor. 12:1-4)
This can be a tricky subject seeing as we can easily get into “interdenominational” subjectivity, which I would rather not delve into here. Needless to say, when we read that God “created the heavens”, though the third heaven may be considered a supernatural (outside of nature) place, ALL things were created by God, inside or outside of nature. We, being finite created beings, can only comprehend what we are able to, but while this subject is important to research thoroughly, it can also easily trip someone up to the point of becoming too overwhelmed. Suffice it to say, God created “the heavens”, and that should be good enough.
The Heavens and the Earth
We will not be able to get into the specifics in this first part, but as we will read onward, the next few sections explain in more detail what it means for God to have created “the heavens and the earth.”
I want to point out here that the Hebrew word “eretz” means both land and earth. You can think of it this way; God created the sky and separated it from the land (which is stated later in this chapter). Another way is to say that God created the sky and the planet earth where everything relevant takes place. While there are times where we read of things taking place in the stars above and around the throne of God, the majority of everything that Scripture talks about (from a historic standpoint) takes place on the planet Earth. That is the focus. We can look to the sky for various reasons, but God’s will and plans as written in the Scriptures all revolve around things that take place on the earth, specifically, our lives lived for Him.
Criticisms and debate
As mentioned at the beginning, the creation account has been the subject of debate in many circles. While some argue that the universe is billions of years old, others hold to what is called “young earth creationism” that suggests the universe (or at least the earth) is only about 6,000 years old. Another argument is that the creation account doesn’t account for the scientific requirements necessary to sustain each thing created on each individual day. Yet another argument suggests that perhaps God is part of a society of gods and this happens to be His own universe where there may be several others managed by other gods.
This is why it is vitally important to study the entirety of Scripture, not once, but over the course of your entire life (and hopefully throughout eternity). When we read on in other passages, we learn that Elohim (God) is ONE (Deut. 6:4), and besides Him there is no other (Deut. 4:35, Is. 45:5). A counter-argument may be, “maybe He’s lying”… to which I would reply that “God is not a man, that He should lie” (Num. 23:19). What point would there be in any of our faith if He was lying to us? It would all be completely pointless and counterproductive.
Everything From Nothing
These things aside, I want to look at God as eternal. God has had no beginning. He always was, always is, and always will be. This is repeated in various ways throughout Scripture and is in fact the very root of His Name. Though His Name does not appear in these passages, the Name of Elohim – Yehovah – comes from the root words in Hebrew Haya (היה ), Hove (הווה ) and Yihye (יהיה ). These mean “was“, “is“, and “will be.” This will be covered later in the Scripture Studies.
In Theological Apologetics, God is known as the “uncaused cause.” This means that He is the source and beginning of all else. He is the “because” to the questions “why” or “how”. Critics would suggest this is the “god of the gaps” theory, however, when provided with an explanation behind “God”, then it’s no longer dismissible.
If we consider for a moment how everything came into being when there was absolutely nothing (to quote Aristotle, “Nothing is what rocks dream about”), then how did it all come into being? There are many who have tried to argue in favor of what has been coined as the “Big Bang” theory; however, it still does not provide for the question of where everything came from for such an event to even occur. So, we must go outside of nature (space, time, matter) to find the answer. This is actually not an uncommon perspective seeing as that which is considered supernatural is by definition that which resides outside of nature. We haven’t even used any Scripture and that’s the inevitable direction one must take to find the answers.
We’ve already established that the universe is not eternal. Among many things, the Second Law of Thermodynamics states (in essence) that everything within the universe will eventually run out of energy. That means, in layman’s terms, that the sun will eventually burn out. Even that is not infinite. So, the universe had a beginning and will eventually come to an end without intervention (yet another topic we will get into at a later time), but what or who “began” it?
It would have to be a personal, timeless (eternal), spaceless, immaterial, all-powerful being of the highest intelligence and unchanging in essence. Timeless, spaceless, and immaterial for the obvious reason that these things did not exist prior to Creation, but also all-powerful and highly intelligent. Why? Because to create literally everything, one would have to be all-powerful and highly intelligence (or, all-knowing) to create what has been created, but also have the ability to make the personal decision to create such a vast creation we call nature and existence with all it’s scientific rules and mathematical equations (ref; Fine Tuning of the Universe). And again, we haven’t even started looking at Scripture yet!
Which God?
Now, the conclusion is again, in my view, quite obvious – a God (a “creator”) must have made all of this possible. The question of which God is another matter, so let’s go ahead and look at the Scriptures to see what matches these aspects of our Creator – the God of the Bible:
- Bereshit/Genesis 1:1 – God created all (existing before the universe)
- Psalm 90:2 says, “Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, from eternity past to eternity future you are God.”
- Yeshua states in John 4:24 that “God is spirit” (a supernatural being – something/someone outside of nature).
- 1 Timothy 1:17 states that God (the King) is eternal, immortal, invisible, and the only God.
- Romans 1:20 says, “For ever since the creation of the universe his invisible qualities — both his eternal power and his divine nature — have been clearly seen, because they can be understood from what he has made. Therefore, they have no excuse.” (In essence, his handiwork is obvious to the observer.)
- Psalm 139:7-10 says, “Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I climb up to heaven, you are there; if I lie down in Sh’ol (the grave), you are there. If I fly away with the wings of the dawn and land beyond the sea, even there your hand would lead me, your right hand would hold me fast.” (In essence, this establishes God’s all-present existence, or, His omnipresence.)
These are but a few passages that establish the very nature of God’s (namely, Yehovah’s) being; and science already agrees with these factors. As a believer, I do not require science to solidify my faith nor do I fear it. Science and Scripture go hand-in-hand seeing as the God of Scripture is also the God Who created the very science we use to further establish His existence.
For more passages concerning various aspects of creation and the eternal nature of God, you can also read Isaiah 40:22, 42:5, 44:24, 45:12, 48:13, 51:13, and Job 9:8.
In Conclusion
The question may arise as to the relevance these understands hold for believers in the faith.
For one, Peter writes that we should always remain “ready to give a reasoned answer to anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you – yet with humility and fear” (1 Peter 3:15). Especially today, people often need a well throughout and explainable reason to accept the message of the Kingdom. Does it require faith? Certainly, but I’m quite fond of Dr. Frank Turek’s book title, “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist” where he argues that there’s so much evidence in favor of a Creator that it requires more faith to believe there is none. We really only require a small amount of faith in light of the vast amount of evidence that is out there – faith the size of a mustard seed (Matt. 17:20).
Secondly, we are a people who worship and pray to one God Whom created nature. We do not do as the pagans who worship false gods, pray to nature, and sacrifice their children without valid reason. The Torah warns against such practices and we see the repercussions of such all throughout the Torah and the Prophets. Even after Yeshua’s ascension, Romans 1 establishes from those passages (the prophetic history) that such people “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”
But to Yehovah be all the glory, honor, and our devotion! He made all, you and me. and He holds everything together. He also makes Himself known to us. We serve an amazing and awesome Elohim that loves us and desires our love in return. He acknowledges our faults but provides a means to escape them and the punishment of such short-comings so that we may draw closer to Him. He also promises that though we may enter death, we may also have eternal life if we choose Him and His way of life. That is why, at least in my view, Bereshit 1:1 is such an incredibly profound and important passage to spend so much time on – He is that worth the while.
Selah, amein, and shalom.