בְּרֵאשִׁית (b'reshit) — In the beginning / At the beginning of

Etymology

בְּרֵאשִׁית is the very first word of the Torah and one of the most analyzed words in the history of biblical interpretation. Despite its fame as meaning "in the beginning," this reading is grammatically problematic. The word appears five times in the Bible (six counting בְּרֵאשִׁיתָהּ in Hosea 9:10), and in every other occurrence it functions as a construct noun — the first part of a genitive phrase — such as "בְּרֵאשִׁית מַלְכוּת צִדְקִיָּה" ("at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah," Jeremiah 49:34).

If the author of Genesis 1:1 had intended to write "in the beginning" in an absolute sense, one would expect the adverb בָּרִאשֹׁנָה or at minimum the definite form בָּרֵאשִׁית. As it stands, the word appears to be in the construct state, meaning it introduces a following clause. Rashi understood the verse as if it read בְּרֵאשִׁית בְּרֹא — "at the beginning of God's creating" — a reading shared by most modern scholars and traditional commentators. Ibn Ezra defended the received text by pointing to a handful of biblical passages where a construct noun is followed by a finite verb rather than an infinitive.

Three main interpretations have emerged: (1) the phrase stands alone as a title or heading; (2) the temporal clause describes the state of affairs in verse 2 ("when God began to create... the earth was formless and void"); (3) the clause is a time-stamp for the first divine act in verse 3. The third reading is supported by the parallel structure of Genesis 2:4–7 and of the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish, both of which open with a temporal clause, followed by a parenthetical description of the world's prior state, followed by the first divine action.

Beyond grammar, the midrashic tradition found encoded meaning in the word itself. Bereshit Rabbah identifies בְּרֵאשִׁית with the Torah, reasoning from Proverbs 8:22, where Wisdom says "The Lord acquired me as the reshit of His way." The shared use of ראשׁית in both verses is read as a cipher: God created the world by means of the Torah.

Key Quotes

"בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ" — Genesis 1:1 (biblical)

"בְּרֵאשִׁית מַלְכוּת צִדְקִיָּה" — Jeremiah 49:34 (construct usage)

"יְהוָה קָנָנִי רֵאשִׁית דַּרְכּוֹ" — Proverbs 8:22 (midrashic proof-text)

Timeline

• ~6th–5th century BCE: Torah reaches its present form
• ~3rd–2nd century BCE: Septuagint translates "Ἐν ἀρχῇ" — absolute "In the beginning"
• ~1st century CE: Targum Onkelos "בְּקַדְמִין" — also absolute
• ~5th century CE: Jerome's Vulgate "In principio"
• 11th century: Rashi proposes construct reading: "at the beginning of God's creating"
• 12th century: Ibn Ezra defends the received text with syntactic parallels
• 1928: Ugaritic discovery provides comparative Semitic creation narrative structures
• Modern: Scholarly consensus: בְּרֵאשִׁית is a construct noun opening a temporal clause

Related Words

• רֵאשִׁית — first-fruits, beginning; used in Proverbs 8:22
• בָּרִאשֹׁנָה — adverb: "in the beginning, formerly"
• בָּרֵאשִׁית — the definite form that would unambiguously mean "in the beginning"