1:1 In the beginning, God. The Hebrew word for “God,” the first subject of Genesis and the Bible, is plural to denote His majesty. There is no other god (Deut. 4:39; Is. 40:21, 28; 43:10; John 1:1; Col. 1:17). He is truth, the basis for all sound knowledge (John 14:6). God is personal; He speaks and acts.

created. This translates a Hebrew word reserved for God’s creative activity alone. Linguistically possible, though less likely, is the translation “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form and void.” God’s creative activity was not merely the ordering of preexistent matter (like an artisan fashioning a product), however, for other passages clearly teach that the universe was created ex nihilo (i.e., out of nothing, John 1:3; Heb. 11:3; 2 Pet. 3:5) and that only God is eternal and transcendent (e.g., Ps. 102:25–27; Prov. 8:22–31). Not even the darkness exists apart from God’s creative word (Is. 45:7). While the narrative here is fully consistent with the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, the emphasis falls on God’s progressive ordering of a formless and empty world (v. 2 note).

the heavens and the earth. This compound of opposites signifies the organized universe.