The first words of the Bible are “In the beginning God created” (Gen 1:1). In Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים, which reads slightly different, because it says “In (a) beginning God created”. The definite article is missing at the beginning. This is not about
the absolute first
beginning, but about
a
Beginning. That there are several beginnings can be seen by looking at the opening verses to John’s Gospel, where there is mention of an earlier beginning.

Which beginning is meant in Genesis can be seen from the context. It says there:

“In (a) beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Gen 1,1

This is about the beginning of heaven and earth. It is the earth we stand on and it is the heavens we look up to. The heavens and the earth describe the perceptible world. The opening verse of the Book of Genesis is not about evolution or creation. The book has a different concern.

If we read the book, as a human being who was born in this world, who breathes the air to live here every day, then we learn something about our world here. This earth was once created by a God who has everything to do with this world. No matter where we look, whether we look up to heaven or anything on earth, He is involved. He is the origin. Right at the beginning of the book it is made clear: We live in His world. That’s an amazing connection. Already because we are traveling in this world, there is a relationship with this God. This is what the Bible is about.

The relationship between God and this world is at the beginning. It is a connecting point for our own existence. This places ourselves, as readers of the Bible and inhabitants of the earth, in a very big context – if we can accept it.

The aim of the Bible is not to give a scientific treatise – even if we find extraordinary good observations of this world in the book. One purpose of Genesis 1 is not to justify creation, for example. If we think that, we are aiming past this opening verse. Already in the first sentence it should become clear to us that there is a God who is above everything, but who is also connected to this world – from the very beginning. He is the subject.

In the concordant rendering of Genesis 1, as in the Hebrew Bible, the initial words are read as titles. The whole book is called “In/An a beginning” (hb. bereshith). That’s the headline. This is followed by the first sentence.

At (a) beginning
Elohim created the heavens and the earth.

The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. These beginnings are all to be sought in God Himself.

Much later, the apostle Paul writes, “For out of Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Rom 11:36). This is not a pious formula, but the recognition that this world is safely in His hands – from the beginning and until the end.

The Book of Beginnings places the world that is visible to us in a context with an invisible God who holds all of this in His hands from the beginning. Our approval or disapproval is irrelevant to this story. Even if you disagree, this is the history written down. Nothing is justified here, only told. This, however, is important because the entire rest of the Bible is built on these things. This is where it begins. From here, a multifaceted story unfolds.