Bible Geek Word Nerd - in the Beginning

 In the Beginning...

May 1, 2022 

“In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth…”

בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ

The words from the first book of the Hebrew Scriptures are well known to Bible-reading communities. The Hebrew word translated as the English words “in the beginning” is RESHITH (רֵאשִׁית). RESHITH occurs over 50 times in the Hebrew Bible, from Genesis 1:1 quoted above, to Nehemiah 12:44, where it is translated as “firstfruits”, to Ezekiel 44:30, where it is translated as “the best”.

 

RESHITH derives from the Hebrew root noun ROSH (רֹאשׁ), which fundamentally means “head”. And like its English counterpart, ROSH can denote that thing which holds your brain and sits on your shoulders. But it also connotes other meanings, like beginning or chief or best. 

 

You might recognize ROSH from its annual usage in the Fall Days of Awe in the Jewish religious calendar. ROSH HA SHANA, the Jewish New Year, means “head of the year”.

ROSH occurs almost 600 times in the Hebrew Bible. You can read it in Genesis 3:15 (sometimes the verse called the protoevangelion): 

 

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.”

 

And though John the Revelator wrote his words in Greek (or at least, that is how we have them recorded), it is not too difficult to imagine that he was harkening back to this first sentence of his Jewish Scriptures when he closed his Revelation with the words of Jesus: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the BEGINNING (RESHITH) and the End” (Revelation 22:13)