Genesis 1:1

Context

This is the first verse of Genesis and the first sentence of the entire Bible. It serves as the introduction to the account that runs from Genesis 1:1 to 2:3, which describes creation in six days and God's rest on the seventh. Tradition has regarded Moses as the author of the Pentateuch, but many modern biblical scholars posit multiple sources and a process of editorial compilation.

The Hebrew verb bara, translated "created," is known to take only God as its subject in the Old Testament. Elohim, translated "God," is plural in form but is used with a singular verb.

Interpretation

• As an independent declaration: Verse 1 is read as a self-contained sentence, a summary declaration that God stands at the beginning of all things and made the whole world ("the heaven and the earth"). Most Korean translations, including the Korean Revised Version and the New Korean Revised Version, render it this way.
• As a subordinate clause: Some hold that Hebrew grammar permits reading the verse as a temporal clause leading into verse 2, such as "When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form…" On this reading, verse 1 by itself is less clearly a statement of creation out of nothing.
• Creation out of nothing: The church has read this verse together with passages such as Hebrews 11:3 and Romans 4:17 as a basis for the doctrine that God made the world from nothing (creatio ex nihilo). Many who favor the subordinate-clause reading nonetheless hold that the doctrine itself is affirmed by other passages.
• Trinitarian reading: One tradition reads the plural Elohim, the Spirit of God in verse 2, and the Word of John 1:1–3 together, understanding creation as the work of the triune God (see Trinity). Others caution, however, that the plural form alone cannot prove the Trinity.

Debates and Controversies

This verse and the six-day creation account that follows are central texts in the creation and evolution debate.

• Young-earth creationism: Takes the six days literally as 24-hour days and holds the earth to be between several thousand and about ten thousand years old. The creation science movement represents this position.
• Old-earth creationism: Includes the day-age theory, which reads "day" (yom) as a long era, and the gap theory, which posits a long period between verses 1 and 2.
• Framework interpretation: Views the six days not as a chronology but as a literary structure for describing creation.
• Theistic evolution (evolutionary creation): Holds that God created life through the process of evolution.

It is often noted that all of these positions share the confession expressed in verse 1 that God is the Creator.

In the Korean Church

Creation science lectures and seminars have long been popular in the Korean church, and scientists and some theologians have raised objections to them, prompting a debate that continues today. The verse is also frequently used as the text for the first sermon of the new year and as the opening passage in programs for reading through the Bible.

Related Passages

• John 1:1–3
• Hebrews 11:3
• Psalm 33:6
• Colossians 1:16