The First Word of the Bible
- Hope Joy X. Owens
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
Did you know God's plan of salvation is in the very first word of the Bible?
If you didn't have interest in learning Hebrew before, you might after learning this.
*I do not take credit for discovering this. I saw this and wanted to put it in another format (and add some reflection).
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
בראשית
"In the beginning" is one word in Hebrew.
In order, the letters individually translate:
Bet "tent"
Resh "head chief"
Aleph "Adonai, God, Yahweh"
Shin "to destroy"
Yon "hand"
Tav "covenant or cross"
Combining the first two letters, the Hebrew word translates to “son” (bar). These words form a sentence: "The Son of God destroyed by His own hand on a cross."
More words can be derived:
Shayith “thorns”
Rosh “head”
Berosh “tree”
Shi “gift”
All together, you can create a new sentence: The Son of God destroyed by His own hand on a cross with thorns on His head, hung up on a tree as a gift of the covenant.
This reminds me of John 1:1.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
We know that “Word” refers to Jesus. Jesus was in the beginning with God and also identifies as “God” and “Creator” (see also Colossians 1:16 and Hebrews 1:3).
Whether John intended this with his writing or not, we can take his statement literally: Jesus is truly the word in the beginning. I’m sure God meant for the wording to work out this way.
To know God is to know love. Love is natural to God. God created time and space with love. God planned to love us since the beginning of time. Nothing God does goes against His character. His love is evident from the first word in Scripture.
God is so cool!
Below is a single-page PDF with this בראשית explanation. You can also visit my Instagram or Facebook to see the PDF broken into slides!
