To say there is a beginning already extends there must be an end.[1] The Hebraic term, [בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית/bĕrēʾšîṯ] in Gen 1:1, intends eschatological teleology as much as it does origins. The Bible opens with a map showing the reader the end [אַחֲרִית/ʾaḥărîṯ] from the beginning [רֵאשִׁית/rēʾšîṯ] (Isa 46:10; cf. Num 24:20; Deut 11:12). This spectrum is outlined in the creation narrative that follows in 1:1-2:3-4.
It ties nicely with Isa 65:17’s “new heavens and new earth” שָׁמַ֥יִם חֲדָשִׁ֖ים וָאָ֣רֶץ חֲדָשָׁ֑ה (šāmayim ḥăḏāšîm wāʾāreṣ ḥăḏāšâ; cf. Rev. 21:1). The first mirrors the last. To see what once was is to see what will be. In the now and not yet sense this is Rev 1:4’s “him who is and who was and who is to come.”[2] A believer lives now in the present imaging what is to come and modeled in what originally was.
The ancient text shows rhythmic patterns of creation and re-creation as chaos ensues bringing about de-creation requiring such renewals. The Bible portends that only YHWH and his agents whether terrestrial or celestial (those aligning themselves obediently with YHWH) can truly keep chaos at bay via chaoskampf[3] through alignment to God’s rule or kingdom here on the earth just as it is in heaven (cf. Matt 6:10). All others fail in their attempts apart from YHWH and his council (e.g., Ps 82).[4] This is not the only way one can read this text. It certainly is not the only way I do. It merely is one provocative way that correlates well the present trajectory of this blog.
Scholars debate where the first creation story ends and the second begins (in 2:3-4). The Hebrew Bible extant to us now is approximately a millennium old in the most complete forms available. Scholars successfully argue its validity despite the late date utilizing other ancient witnesses (including but not limited to the Dead Sea Scrolls along with other translations of the text in Greek, Aramaic, and others which predate the first century CE) to verify its authenticity with remarkable effect. The Hebrew comes down to us from the Masoretic Tradition and is known as the MT, a shortened form of the phrase. Masoretic Text.
In the third century BCE, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Old (or Attic) Greek. In the Old Greek (often labelled the LXX commonly referred to the Septuagint), the terms אַחֲרִית/ʾaḥărîṯ
and רֵאשִׁית/rēʾšîṯ in Isa 46:10 are rendered in the Greek lemmas ἔσχατος/eschatos and πρότερος/proteros. The Greek here focuses more so on the telos implied by the use of συντελέω/synteleō which is quite similar to what Jesus cries out on the cross in John 19:30 (bringing an end to the present order while establishing an new one in God’s kingdom), but I am getting ahead of myself. It would seem the focus is on the end as the LES translates Isa 46:10 thusly,
who declares beforehand [πρότερος/proteros] the final things [ἔσχατος/eschatos] before they happen, and at once they are accomplished [συντελέω/synteleō]. And I said, “All my counsel will stand, and I will do all that I have resolved.”[5]
Therefore, what is seen in Gen 1:1 applying Rev 1:4 is also inherent in Isa 46:10. YHWH declares from the beginning or beforehand (prophetically) that which is to come (apocalyptically). In the here and now, YHWH will utilize his earthly agents as members of his council to achieve his purposes. All awaits the not yet (Rom 8:18ff). This is when the heavenly and earthly will unite to become one as Jesus prays in John 17.
The unveiling of his heirs as “sons of God”[6]—a loaded term—brings about God’s kingdom as it once was in those who now are until the final consummation of all that is coming. The Church is that paradigm in the current age. The present is to image (as God’s imagers in Gen 1:26-27) both what was before and what will be in the now and not yet sense (cf. 1 Cor 13:12). All this occurs even as the cosmos and chaos attempts to thwart God’s rule. God chooses to continue to use his human agency as his images to declare his rule in this realm over all as his viceregents to represent YHWH’s rule of the cosmos in his kingdom now until the not yet ensues at the Parousia. For now, it is Christ’s Body that exemplifies such coming rule in the Coming King. Each must allow that rule as the kingdom within (Luke 17:21) despite all the chaos without that threatens to overrule God’s kingdom. Humans are his kings, priests (Exod 19:6; Rev 1:6; 5:10; cf. 1 Pet 2:9).
When the Bible opens with רֵאשִׁית/rēʾšîṯ, its very next use is of the beginning of the reign of the first governmental leader in Nimrod (Gen 10:10). Its last and only other use in Genesis is of Reuben, Judah’s firstborn (49:3) or ruler of the household and one in line to take the father’s place in his absence. This matches its usage elsewhere in the Pentateuch of first fruits (e.g., Exod 23:19) of which Jesus is the first fruits in the Resurrection (ἀνίστημ/anistēm) in which all believers are to follow. Similarly, the grammar reflects the beginnings of Israel’s future kings’ reigns marking out the time a rule is inaugurated throughout the prophets (cf. Jer 28:1).
Many cycles of kings and their rule come and go until Jesus inaugurates God’s final kingdom which has no end. Thus, “in the beginning,” as רֵאשִׁית/rēʾšîṯ is often translated being a popular hold over from the KJV’s rendering back in the 17th century, refers quite easily to God beginning his rule in this realm by establishing the means by which he will rule and installing those of his servants (family) he wishes to oversee on his behalf this new realm as viceroys. The account ends in the Sabbath with YHWH resting (enthroned) in power over all the universe. This Hebrew term lacks the direct object grammatically and can be understood to reflect a construct state rather than the traditional absolute state matching similar ANE accounts.[7]
Most notably on the usage of רֵאשִׁית is the annual festival of Rosh[8] Hoshanah which annually celebrates creation and this initial rule from the beginning. Some scholars like Mowinckel[9] have tied such fall festivities to an annual renewal of the cosmos tying both Yom Kippur (an end) and Rosh Hoshanah (the beginning) marking over the end of the old and a renewed new year marking off YHWH’s renewed rule canceling the effects of humankind’s “falling short of God’s glory” (Rom 3:23) each year (Deut 11:12). Annually, the Hebrew people reinstated YHWH as the cosmos’s ruler over chaos to restore order in their rituals. These acted out principles were key in establishing God’s order over and above the ever ensuing chaos that always threatened their reality as his people in a world that constantly stood apart from YHWH in privation. The Israelites (as YHWH’s children/earthly family) chose participation in YHWH (and his hosts—Gen 2:1; Job 38:7; cf. Rev 4-5’s “myriads”) as opposed to joining with the world and its systems that “set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed”[10] (Ps 2:2).
[1] John H. Sailhamer, “Genesis,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Genesis–Leviticus (Revised Edition), ed. Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), 51-53; idem, “Genesis.” In Expositor’s Bible Commentary, edited by F. E. Gaebelein Volume 2: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1990, 21-23.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 1:4. For OT connections here see https://nakedbiblepodcast.com/podcast/naked-bible-353-revelation-14/
[3] Sans D. Tsumura who demurs chaoskampf in The Earth and Waters in Genesis 1 and 2: A Linguistic Investigation (Sheffield: Sheffield, 1989), 45-83, 156-59; idem, Creation and Destruction: A Reappraisal of the Chaoskampf Theory in the Old Testament. (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2005); pace others who offer riposte, e.g., K.L. Sparks “‘Enūma Elish’ and Priestly Mimesis: Elite Emulation in Nascent Judaism.” JBL 126, no. 4 (2007): 630 n.14; M. S. Smith, The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2010), 69.
[4] Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, First Edition. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015).
[5] The Lexham English Septuagint, Second Edition. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020), Is 46:10.
[6] S. B. Parker, “Sons of (The) God(S),” ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 794-800.
[7] For the latest discussions see Ronald S. Hendel, Genesis 1–11 Vol. 1A. Anchor Yale Bible. New Haven: Yale University Press, forthcoming; of great interest is Robert D. Holmstedt, “The Restrictive Syntax of Genesis i 1,” Vetus Testamentum 58 (2008) 56-67.
[8] Rosh shares the same root as רֵאשִׁית/rēʾšîṯ.
[9] S. Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien, 1–6, Oslo 1921–4 (repr. Amsterdam 1961).
[10] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 2:2.
