In the beginning (phrase)

Did You Know?

• The Book of Genesis is titled Bereshit by its incipit in Hebrew, as are other books of the Hebrew Bible.
• The first word of Genesis is recited in the Aleinu prayer near the end of each of the three daily prayer-services.
• Christian theologians commonly parallel Genesis 1:1 with John 1:1, viewing it as something the author alluded to.

Etymology

The Hebrew term bǝrēʾšît is composed of the prepositional suffix bǝ and the noun rēʾšît, forming part of a genitive phrase. A linguistic and exegetical translation would be "In the beginning of..."; the non-genitive Hebrew form for "In the beginning" would be barēʾšît. The traditional rendering as "In the beginning" has been disputed. Joseph Blenkinsopp proposes a functional equivalent: "When God began to create...". Thomas Römer notes that according to the Masoretic tradition, bǝrēʾšît indicates "a beginning" among possible others, not the absolute Beginning. John Day and Benjamin Kantor, however, support the traditional translation.

Usage

In the Hebrew Bible, bǝrēʾšît appears five times: in Genesis 1:1 and in Jeremiah 26:1, 27:1, 28:1, and 49:34. In Jeremiah, each occurrence refers to the beginning of a king's reign, translated as "In the beginning of the reign of...". The King James Version renders John 1:1a as "In the beginning was the Word." The Enuma Elish opens with a similar descriptor, setting the story at the start of the world's formation.