Page 11 - ADAM IN GENESIS

light, the earth already existed and was in darkness. This is critical to interpreting the
passage of Genesis 1:1-5. Lets dig in a little deeper.
There is no reason to interpret Genesis 1:1 as anything less than the creation of time,
space and matter. Some have said it is merely a title to the story, but the grammar with its
perfect tense verbs leading up to the Creation Days is clearly pointing to verse 1 having
historical content. The prepositional phrase bereshiyth (in the beginning) occurs 5 times
in the Hebrew Old Testament. The other 4 passages are in the Book of Jeremiah and are
attached to the larger phrase In the beginning of the reign of King. In Jeremiah 26:1;
27:1; and 49:34, the exact time of the beginning is ambiguous. However in Jeremiah 28:1
it appears that the beginning is not the beginning we might imagine but at a certain four
years and five months into the reign of King Zedekiah who we know reigned for 11 years
(2Kings 24:18).
The LXX translates bereshiyth as en arche which is used 28 times and is a little more
liberal in meaning (i.e. first, beginning, chief). John uses this phrase exactly in John 1:1
in a direct reference to this same beginning. He states that the Word (later made known as
Jesus) existed with God and as God in the beginning. This makes sense when he refers to
Jesus as the creator of all things (John 1:3 and backed up by Paul in Colossians 1:15-17).
The actual root of the word, res, is used 51 times and translated as first, beginning, head,
chief, choicest, etc We will see later in Gen. 2:10 the same word is translated rivers and
actually refers to the headwaters of the river, or the rivers beginning upslope. The other
passage in the OT that uses res in a direct reference to the beginning is Prov. 8:22. Here,
God is said to have possessed wisdom at the beginning of His works. New Testament
passages that use arche in reference to the beginning are Matt. 19:4, 8; 24:21; Mark 10:6;
13:19; John 1:1-2; 8:44; Heb. 1:10; 2Pet. 3:4; 1John 2:13-14; 3:8; Rev. 3:14; 21:6; 22:13.
Based on the semantic ranges above, an original recipient of this text would have
understood that the beginning took place at some time before the first Creation Day. He
would most likely also have understood an origination point for the heavens and the earth
and that the beginning of the earth would not necessarily have been at the same time as
the beginning of the heavens. We know this from the use of beginning in referring to the
th
st
th
5 month of the 4 year of King Zedekiah's reign and NOT referring to the 1 day of
st
st
the 1 month of the 1 year of his reign. Also, Jesus refers to the creation of man and
woman at the beginning of creation in Mark 10:6. We know from Genesis 1 that they
were created on Creation Day 6 not Day 1. So in summary, the beginning in Genesis 1:1
appears to have lasted from the origination point until God says Let there be light in verse
3. We must be honest in saying that the text gives us no clues as to how long this took.

The grammar of Genesis 1:1 in context establishes there was a beginning of time. At
some point in the beginning the heavens and the earth were created. And it establishes
that they were created by God. The Hebrew word elohim is a plural of majesty. Not that
there are more than one God, but that He is plural out of respect. It is used 1068 times in
the Old Testament. Sometimes it is shortened to el and sometimes (41x) appears as eloah
mostly in the poetic books. In all cases, the intended character is the same God that
appears all throughout Scripture.
Elohim is said to have created (Heb. bara). This verb is used 45 times in the Old
Testament. In 43 of those occurrences it appears in the Qal stem and is always used as an