Hebrew4Christians Blog

by John J. Parsons
www.hebrew4christians.com

בראשׁית ברא אלהים את השׁמים ואת הארץ

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

The first word of revelation given in the Torah is the Hebrew word bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁית), a word that ultimately comes from rosh (ראשׁ), meaning “head.” Since the word bereshit lacks the definite article (”the”), it can be construed to mean “at the beginning.” Rashi argues that bereshit does not signify the order of creation, since barishonah or “at first” would have been used.

Interestingly, the Hebrew prefix Bet (ב) can mean “with,” which has led some of the Jewish sages to speculate that rosh is synonymous for wisdom, and therefore the word can mean “with wisdom” God created the heavens and the earth. Other sages have noted that the Bet, a plosive, is the first “sound” of creation. The three-sided shape of the Ketav Ashuri letter is “closed” to the right, indicating inscrutability. Aleph, the first letter, is “silent” and depicts the mystery of God’s Life over and above His creation.

Some have noticed that the definite object marker (את) is a hint that Aleph and Tav were present at Creation. Jewish midrash notes that God literally created the universe using the divine letters, though it is important to note that Yeshua Himself is called Aleph v’Tav in Scripture (Rev. 1:8, 21:6).
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חָכְמוֹת בָּנְתָה בֵיתָהּ

Wisdom has built her house
Prov. 9:1

A corollary is from John 1:1:

בְּרֵאשִׁית הָיָה הַדָּבָר

In the beginning was the Word
John 1:1

Here Yeshua the Mashiach is described as the Word (davar) of God who was at the beginning with God in the process of creation. This accords nicely with the plural form used for God (אלהים) in this verse. It also accords with Paul’s teaching that Yeshua is the “Power of God and the Wisdom of God”:

מָשִׁיחַ גְּבוּרַת אֱלֹהִים וְחָכְמַת אֱלֹהִים

Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God
1 Cor. 1:24

“In the beginning” — i.e., in a dimension that is not our own — God created (ברא) the heavens and earth. In Jewish mysticism, tzimtzum (צמצום), “contraction,” was theorized to permit freedom of the will to moral creatures. It is thought that if God did not restrict Himself, nothing else could possibly exist (i.e., immanence would “swallow up” everything else). However, God is Ha-Makom (המקום), “the Place,” by which it is meant that He is omnipresent in His glory and attributes. How can God be both immanent and transcendent? Only if He chooses to “empty Himself” or limit the exercise of His attributes to allow creation to co-exist with His Presence… God “conceals” Himself in creation and yet is everywhere present. This is not unlike the disguised King in the Song of Solomon who woos the Shulamite woman (which metaphorically represents God’s love for His people).

God’s greatest disguise is in the lowly advent of Jesus of Nazareth…