Description: Shows how the translation of Genesis 1:1 based on Hebrew grammar reveals the Big Bang as the initial creation event.
By Gwen Frangs / Cambridge, UK / September 2020
The first word in Genesis 1:1 in the original Hebrew is בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית ( b’reishit ). According to the English Bible translators בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית should be translated as ‘In the beginning’. However, according to ancient Hebrew grammar the word must be translated as ‘In the beginning of’. The word ‘of’ must be there for it to be a correct translation because there is a vowel called “s h’va” under the letter bet in the word b’reishit . A correct translation of the word occurs in Jeremiah 26:1: “ B’reishit maml
However, I do not believe that the writer got it wrong or that any of the scribes who copied the text over the years got it wrong either. Firstly, the first letter בְּ of b’reishit is a preposition and can mean ‘in’, ‘when’, ‘with’ or ‘by’. Ancient Jewish scholars would translate it as ‘with’. A Jewish work from antiquity called Genesis Rabbah (1:1) says the following regarding b’reishit :