Bereshit
בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ
Γένεσις
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν
Liber Genesis
In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis is the first book of the Bible. The opening word in the Hebrew is בראשית (Bereshit), which means, “in the beginning.” The title Γένεσις (Genesis) comes from the Greek word for “origin” and was given to the Greek Septuagint translation of the book. The Latin Vulgate translation followed the same naming convention via Liber Genesis.
Genesis 1:1 is the book, chapter, and verse at the center of much philosophical and theological discussion. It is often compared to, and contrasted with, the Babylonian Enuma Elish and Plato’s Timaeus. But the God of Genesis is neither created by the cosmos nor in competition with other gods. God alone is the Creator of the cosmos ex nihilo (out of nothing).
In my post on time and eternity, I draw our attention toward understanding God is eternal and God’s creation is temporal. God’s creation of the cosmos was not of preexistent, and therefore eternal materials, but out of nothing. As a beginningless and endless duration that exists above and beyond time, to be eternal means to be non-temporal. God’s very being is not understood as existing for an especially long quantity of time. But instead, God’s own essence and existence have the eternal quality of timelessness.
~ Boethius ~