Albert Barnes Commentary Genesis 1:1

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." — Genesis 1:1 (ASV)

ראשׁית rḕshı̂̂yt—the “head-part, beginning” of a thing, in point of time (Genesis 10:10), or value (Proverbs 1:7). Its opposite is אחרית 'achărı̂̂yth (Isaiah 46:10). בראשׁית rê'shı̂̂yth—“in the beginning,” is always used in reference to time. Only here is it taken absolutely.

ברא bārā'—“create, give being to something new.” It always has God for its subject. Its object may be anything: matter (Genesis 1:1); animal life (Genesis 1:21); spiritual life (Genesis 1:27). Therefore, creation is not confined to a single point of time. Whenever anything absolutely new—that is, not involved in anything previously existing—is called into existence, there is creation (Numbers 16:30). Anything or event may also be said to be created by Him who created the whole system of nature to which it belongs (Malachi 2:10). The verb in its simple form occurs forty-eight times (eleven of which are in Genesis, fourteen in the whole Pentateuch, and twenty-one in Isaiah) and always in one sense.

אלהים 'ĕlohı̂̂ym—“God.” The noun אלוה 'elôah or אלה 'eloah is found in the Hebrew Scriptures fifty-seven times in the singular (two of which are in Deuteronomy, and forty-one in the book of Job), and about three thousand times in the plural (seventeen of which are in Job). The Aramaic form אלה 'elâh occurs about seventy-four times in the singular and ten in the plural. The Hebrew letter ה (h) is proved to be a radical, not only by bearing a mappiq, but also by holding its ground before a formative ending. The Arabic verb, with the same radicals, seems rather to borrow from it than to lend the meaning coluit, “worshipped,” which it sometimes has.

The root probably means to be “lasting, binding, firm, strong.” Therefore, the noun means the Everlasting, and in the plural, the Eternal Powers. It is correctly rendered God, the name of the Eternal and Supreme Being in our language, which perhaps originally meant lord or ruler. And, like this, it is a common or appellative noun. This is shown by its direct use and indirect applications.

Its direct use is either proper or improper, according to the object to which it is applied. Every instance of its proper use clearly establishes its meaning as the Eternal, the Almighty, who is Himself without beginning and has within Himself the power to cause other things, personal and impersonal, to exist. Consequently, He is the sole object of reverence and primary obedience from His intelligent creation.

Its improper use arose from humanity’s lapse into false notions of the object of worship. Many real or imaginary beings came to be regarded as possessing the attributes of Deity and therefore entitled to the reverence belonging to Deity. In consequence, they were called gods by their mistaken devotees and by others who had occasion to speak of them. This usage at once proves it to be a common noun and corroborates its proper meaning. When used in this way, however, it immediately loses most of its inherent grandeur and sometimes dwindles down to the mere notion of the supernatural or the otherworldly. In this manner, it seems to be applied by the witch of Endor to the unexpected apparition that presented itself to her (1 Samuel 28:13).

Its indirect applications point with equal steadiness to this primary and fundamental meaning. Thus, it is used in a relative and well-defined sense to denote one appointed by God to stand in a certain divine relation to another. This relation is that of an authoritative revealer or administrator of the will of God. Thus, we are told (John 10:34) that he called them gods, to whom the word of God came. Thus, Moses became related to Aaron as God to His prophet (Exodus 4:16), and to Pharaoh as God to His creature (Exodus 7:1).

Accordingly, in Psalm 82:6, we find this principle generalized: I had said, gods are you, and sons of the Highest all of you. Here the divine authority vested in Moses is expressly recognized in those who sit in Moses’ seat as judges for God. They exercised a function of God among the people and so were in God’s place to them. Indeed, humans were originally adapted for ruling, being made in the image of God and commanded to have dominion over the inferior creatures. The parent also is in place of God in some respect to his children, and the sovereign holds the relation of patriarch to his subjects.

Still, however, we are not fully warranted in translating אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym—“judges” in Exodus 21:6; Exodus 22:7–8, Exodus 22:27 (Hebrew versification: verses 8, 9, 28), because an easier, more exact, and impressive sense is obtained from the proper rendering.

The word מלאך m^el'āk—“angel,” as a relative or official term, is sometimes applied to a person of the Godhead, but the process is not reversed. The Septuagint indeed translates אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym in several instances by ἄγγελοι angeloi (Psalms 8:6; Psalms 97:7; Psalms 138:1). The correctness of this is seemingly supported by the quotations in Hebrews 1:6 and Hebrews 2:7. These, however, do not imply that the renderings are absolutely correct, but only that they are sufficiently so for the writer’s purpose. And it is evident they are sufficient, because the original is a highly imaginative figure in which a class is conceived to exist, though in reality only one of that kind is or can be.

The Septuagint translators, either imagining from the occasional application of the official term “angel” to God that the angelic office somehow or sometimes involved the divine nature, or viewing some of the false gods of the pagans as actual angels, and therefore seemingly wishing to give a literal turn to the figure, substituted the word ἄγγελοι angeloi as an interpretation for אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym. This free translation was sufficient for the purpose of the inspired author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, since the worship of all angels (Hebrews 1:6) in the Septuagintal sense of the term was that of the highest rank of dignitaries under God. Furthermore, the argument in the latter passage (Hebrews 2:7) turns not on the words, thou madest him a little lower than the angels, but upon the sentence, thou hast put all things under his feet. Moreover, the Septuagint is by no means consistent in this rendering of the word in similar passages (Psalms 97:1; 1 Samuel 28:13).

Regarding the use of the word, it is to be observed that the plural of the Aramaic form is uniformly plural in sense. The English version of בר־אלהין bar-'elâhı̂yn, the Son of God (Daniel 3:25), is the only exception to this. But since it is the phrase of a pagan, the real meaning may be, a son of the gods. In contrast, the plural of the Hebrew form is generally used to denote the one God. The singular form, when applied to the true God, is naturally suggested by the prominent thought of His being the only one. The plural, when so applied, is generally accompanied by singular conjuncts and conveys the predominant conception of a plurality in the one God—a plurality that must be perfectly consistent with His being the only possible one of His kind.

The explanations for this use of the plural—namely, that it is a relic of polytheism, that it indicates the association of angels with the one God in a common or collective designation, and that it expresses the multiplicity of attributes existing in Him—are not satisfactory. All we can say is that it indicates such a plurality in the only one God as makes His nature complete and creation possible. Such a plurality in unity must have dawned upon the mind of Adam. It is afterward, we conceive, definitively revealed in the doctrine of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

שׁמים shāmayı̂m—“skies, heavens,” being the “high” (shamay, “be high,” Arabic) or the “airy” region; the overarching dome of space, with all its revolving orbs.

ארץ 'erets—“land, earth, the low or the hard.” The underlying surface of land.

The verb is in the perfect form, denoting a completed act. The adverbial note of time, “in the beginning,” determines it to belong to the past. To suit our idiom it may, therefore, be strictly rendered “had created.” The skies and the land are the universe divided into its two natural parts by an earthly spectator. The absolute beginning of time and the creation of all things mutually determine each other.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). This great introductory sentence of the book of God is equal in weight to all of its subsequent communications concerning the kingdom of nature.

Genesis 1:1 assumes the existence of God, for it is He who in the beginning creates. It assumes His eternity, for He is before all things; and since nothing comes from nothing, He Himself must always have been. It implies His omnipotence, for He creates the universe of things. It implies His absolute freedom, for He begins a new course of action. It implies His infinite wisdom, for a κόσμος kosmos—“an order of matter and mind”—can only come from a being of absolute intelligence. It implies His essential goodness, for the Sole, Eternal, Almighty, All-wise, and All-sufficient Being has no reason, no motive, and no capacity for evil. It presumes Him to be beyond all limit of time and place, since He is before all time and place.

It asserts the creation of the heavens and the earth; that is, of the universe of mind and matter. This creating is the omnipotent act of giving existence to things that before had no existence. This is the first great mystery of things, as the end is the second. Natural science observes things as they are, when they have already come into existence. It ascends into the past as far as observation will reach and penetrates into the future as far as experience will guide. But it does not touch the beginning or the end.

This first sentence of revelation, however, records the beginning. At the same time, it involves the progressive development of what is begun and so encompasses all that is revealed in the Book of God. It is thus historical concerning the beginning and prophetical for all of time.

It is, therefore, equivalent to all the rest of revelation taken together, which merely records the evolutions of one sphere of creation and increasingly anticipates the end of present things.

This sentence (Genesis 1:1) assumes the being of God and asserts the beginning of things. Therefore, it intimates that the existence of God is more immediately clear to human reason than the creation of the universe. This is consistent with the philosophy of things, for the existence of God is a necessary and eternal truth, becoming more and more self-evident to the intellect as it rises to maturity.

But the beginning of things is, by its very nature, a contingent event—which once was not and then came to be—contingent on the free will of the Eternal, and therefore not evident to reason itself, but made known to the understanding by testimony and the reality of things. This sentence is the testimony, and the actual world in us and around us is the reality. Faith takes account of the one, observation of the other.

It bears on its very face the indication that it was written by humans and for humans, for it divides all things into the heavens and the earth. Such a division evidently suits only those who are inhabitants of the earth. Accordingly, this sentence (Genesis 1:1) is the foundation-stone of the history—not of the universe at large, of the sun, or of any other planet, but of the earth and of humans, its rational inhabitants. The primeval event it records may be far distant in point of time from the next event in such a history, as the earth may have existed for myriads of ages and undergone many vicissitudes in its condition before it became the home of the human race.

For all we know, the history of other planets, even of the solar system, may yet be unwritten because there has as yet been no rational inhabitant to compose or read the record. We have no indication of the interval of time that elapsed between the beginning of things narrated in this prefatory sentence and the state of things announced in the following verse (Genesis 1:2).

With no less clearness, however, does it show that it was dictated by superhuman knowledge. For it records the beginning of things of which natural science can take no account. Humans observe certain laws of nature and, guided by these, may trace the current of physical events backward and forward, but without being able to fix any limit to the course of nature in either direction. Not only this sentence, but the main part of this and the following chapter communicates events that occurred before humans made their appearance on the stage of things, and therefore before they could either witness or record them. In harmony with all this, the whole volume is proved—by the topics chosen, the revelations made, the views entertained, the ends contemplated, and the means of information possessed—to be derived from a higher source than humanity.

This simple sentence (Genesis 1:1) denies atheism, for it assumes the being of God. It denies polytheism and, among its various forms, the doctrine of two eternal principles (the one good and the other evil), for it confesses the one Eternal Creator. It denies materialism, for it asserts the creation of matter. It denies pantheism, for it assumes the existence of God before all things and apart from them. It denies fatalism, for it involves the freedom of the Eternal Being.

It indicates the relative superiority in point of magnitude of the heavens to the earth by giving the former the first place in the order of words. It is thus in accordance with the first elements of astronomical science.

It is therefore pregnant with physical and metaphysical, ethical and theological instruction for the first human, for the predecessors and contemporaries of Moses, and for all succeeding generations of humankind.

This verse forms an integral part of the narrative, not a mere heading as some have imagined. This is abundantly evident from the following reasons:

1. It has the form of a narrative, not of a heading.
2. The conjunctive particle connects the second verse with it, which would not be possible if it were a heading.
3. The very next sentence speaks of the earth as already existing; therefore, its creation must be recorded in the first verse.
4. In the first verse, the heavens take precedence over the earth, but in the following verses, all things—even the sun, moon, and stars—seem to be mere appendages to the earth. Thus, if it were a heading, it would not correspond with the narrative.
5. If the first verse belongs to the narrative, order pervades the whole account; whereas, if it is a heading, the most hopeless confusion enters. Light is called into being before the sun, moon, and stars. The earth takes precedence over the heavenly luminaries. The stars, which are coordinate with the sun and ranked before the moon, occupy the third place in the narrative of their manifestation.

For any or all of these reasons, it is obvious that the first verse forms a part of the narrative.

As soon as it is settled that the narrative begins in the first verse, another question needs to be determined: namely, whether the heavens here mean the heavenly bodies that circle in their courses through the realms of space, or the mere space itself which they occupy with their movements. It is clear that the heavens here denote the heavenly orbs themselves—the celestial mansions with their existing inhabitants—for the following compelling reasons:

1. Creation implies something created, not mere space, which is nothing and cannot be said to be created.
2. Since “the earth” here obviously means the substance of the planet we inhabit, so, by the same reasoning, the heavens must mean the substance of the celestial luminaries, the heavenly hosts of stars and spirits.
3. “The heavens” are placed before “the earth” and therefore must mean the reality that is greater than the earth, for if they meant “space” and nothing real, they should not be before the earth.
4. “The heavens” are actually mentioned in the verse and therefore must mean a real thing, for if they meant nothing at all, they should not be mentioned.
5. The heavens must denote the heavenly realities because this imparts a rational order to the whole chapter; whereas an unaccountable disorder appears if the sun, moon, and stars do not come into existence until the fourth day, though the sun is the center of light and the measurer of the daily period.

For any or all of these reasons, it is undeniable that the heavens in the first verse mean the fixed and planetary orbs of space; and, consequently, that these uncounted tenants of the skies, along with our own planet, are all declared to be in existence before the commencement of the six days’ creation.

Therefore, it appears that the first verse records an event antecedent to those described in the subsequent verses. This is the absolute and primeval creation of the heavens and all that is in them, and of the earth in its primeval state. The former includes all those brilliant spheres that are spread before the wondering human eye, as well as those hosts of planets and of spiritual and angelic beings that are beyond the range of human natural vision. This brings a simple, unforced meaning out of the whole chapter and discloses a beauty and harmony in the narrative that no other interpretation can afford.

In this way, the subsequent verses reveal a new effort of creative power by which the pre-Adamic earth, in the condition in which it appears in the second verse, is prepared for the residence of a fresh animal creation, including the human race. The process is represented as it would appear to primeval humans in their childlike simplicity, for whom their own position would naturally be the fixed point to which everything else was to be referred.