Explained in plain words

This week we start at the beginning, with the first page of the Bible. It’s a good place for anyone, whether you’ve read it many times or never opened it.

Genesis is the first book of the Bible. In Hebrew, its name, Bereshit, comes from its opening words, “In the beginning.” The English name, Genesis, means “origin.” Jewish and Christian tradition has long linked the first five books with Moses. Many scholars think Genesis was shaped over centuries from older traditions. Either way, this is how it opens:

Notice who the sentence is about. The first subject in the Bible is God. Before light, before people, before any of our questions, God is already there. The verse doesn’t try to prove that God exists. It simply starts with him, the way a story starts with its main character.

The Hebrew word for “created” is bara. In its basic form in the Bible, it is only ever used with God as the one doing it. People make and build. Only God is said to create in this way.

“The heaven and the earth” is often read as a way of saying everything: all that is above and all that is below. Nothing sits outside of what God made.

So the Bible doesn’t begin with a rule, a test or a hero. It begins by telling us who is at the center of the story.

For today

Most of us start the day with something other than God. The alarm, the phone, the news, the to-do list. None of that is wrong. But it often sets the tone before we’ve had a chance to choose one.

This sentence offers a different starting point. You don’t need to have it all figured out, or know what you believe about every page of the Bible. You only need to be willing to begin.

Try this today Tomorrow morning, before you check your phone, take thirty seconds. Sit up, breathe slowly, and say the first words of the Bible: “In the beginning God.” Then start your day as usual.

If you’re new to all this, or coming back after a long time away, you’re in the right place. The Bible starts at the beginning, and so can you.

Know someone who’d like a short, warm letter each weekday? Send this to them.

Where will you begin with God this week? Reply with a word or two.

Nathan Ellsworth
The Faith Letter