I will begin this study with a quote from a science magazine, which seems to express an atheistic worldview: “In the realm of the universe, nothing really means nothing. Not only matter and energy would disappear, but also space and time. However, physicists theorize that from the state of nothingness, the universe began in a gigantic explosion about 16.5 billion years ago.” This theory of the origin of the universe is called the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang Theory does not explain how the universe began. The theory only explains how the existing universe could have developed” (emphasis mine).[1] While the study of the creation account, as found in the early chapters of the Book of Genesis, is not science, it isn’t an argument for or against the Big Bang Theory either. Nevertheless, we are able to agree with this magazine that (other than God) nothing existed before Genesis 1:1, and “nothing really means nothing. Not only matter and energy would disappear, but also space and time” (quoted from above).
Who does the text introduce us to? It’s not exactly an introduction, because for nearly the whole first chapter, the Lord has no one to introduce himself to. His name is YHWH (H3068; cp. Exodus 3:15-16), and, technically, he isn’t introduced until Genesis 2:4. Thus, in the first verse of the Bible we are made aware of a Being who is God (Genesis 1:1). The word, god, has to do with authority, not his essential being, and god or God is not his name. It is more like the title we give to folks in authority over us (your honor; my lord; your majesty). What is happening here is, this Being is taking responsibility for and authority (God) over what he was about to do.
Later, in the Bible we come to understand that there are many gods, because the Lord God of the Bible is the God of gods (Deuteronomy 10:17; Joshua 22:22). The term has to do with men in authority, thus, God is the God of gods, because he is the Lord of kings (Daniel 2:47). Even Jesus told the Jewish authorities that they were gods (John 10:33-34), which points back to the Psalms, where “God stands in the congregation of the mighty (rulers); in the midst of the gods he judges” (Psalm 82:1; parenthesis in the text mine). God was critical of their judgments, because they ruled in favor of the wicked (Psalm 82:2), who bribed them against the cause of the poor (Psalm 82:3-4).
What did God do? In the beginning God created… Before we go on in the text we need to define our terms here. Is this, vis-à-vis the beginning, when God created time? Strictly speaking, God didn’t create time until he created the first day. Is Genesis 1:1 part of the first day? Probably not, because time began with and was defined by the darkness and light of the first day, or the first 24-hour spin of the Earth on its axis. Rather, I think the text is speaking of something else with the mention of the beginning.
In the New Covenant text, we are told that the One who became Jesus was with God and all things were created in him and for him (Colossians 1:16), and all things are held together in him (Colossians 1:17). Moreover, when the text mentions the new creation, it identifies him as the Beginning (Colossians 1:18; Revelation 3:14; cp Colossians 3:10; 2Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; Ephesians 2:10; 4:24; Revelation 21:5). I believe the Beginning at Genesis 1:1 is the One who became Jesus. All things came into existence in him, and it is he who gave birth to creation, according to the seed/word of God spoken in him. God in Genesis 1:1 is referred to as the Father in the New Covenant text.[2]
God, the Being who has always existed created that which had never before existed (see above), God brought all that exists into existence. In other words, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1), or put another way, he created space and all things physical that he put into that space, and the whole of creation is “in the Beginning,” which later became the Christ of the New Covenant text.
This tells us a few things about this God or this Being, who made himself responsible for what he did, and, in creating all that exists. In other words, God took responsibility for all things that would occur (in the future, from our perspective), and this includes the wickedness and rebellion (Genesis 3; cp. John 3:16). God doesn’t age, because he existed prior to time. He created it for us. Moreover, God isn’t physical, and, therefore, he doesn’t decay, because he brought everything that does decay, vis-à-vis things physical, into existence during the first seven days of time. What is physical would, afterward, begin to decay. Thus, God is the Eternal, Self-existent One! Finally, God doesn’t require space to sit in, stand in or be in. Therefore, space cannot limit him. He can be everywhere (omnipresent) at the same time.
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[1] HBJ; General Science, 1989, page 362.
[2] This idea is a departure from what I originally wrote and published. I became aware of this idea in a later study of Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, and I am convinced this is the meaning of the text at Genesis 1:1.
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