The First Word of The Bible

In this study we will focus on the first book (ascribed to Moses); the first verse, and the very first WORD of the Bible.

The revelation of the foreknowledge of God is one of the most powerful proofs that the Bible is truly the inspired Word of the one true, all-knowing and all-powerful God. We read in Acts 15:18…

“Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.”

In John 5:46 we read of Jesus’ indictment against the unbelieving Jews…

“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.”

The apostle Peter later wrote concerning Jesus …

“Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 1 Peter 1:20

The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:9 …

“And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ”

In this study we will see that, hidden in this very first word, is a message that encapsulates the absolute centrepiece of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the Gospel from the very foundation – the beginning. And it proves that Jesus Christ coming to earth to die for us was no afterthought – it was no accident – it was in God’s plan and purpose from the outset. With God there was no plan B – it was always plan A.

Now to uncover this hidden mystery we need to refer to the original ancient language of the Bible – ancient Hebrew. This is not modern Hebrew, or even classic Hebrew. It goes back as far as archaeological evidence has gone.

Hebrew and Aramaic (from the land of Aram; a land approximating to modern day Syria) are closely related languages and share many similar or exactly the same words. Hebrew at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (after the return of the Babylonian exile) adopted the Aramaic style script, probably due to the influence of the people who had re-populated the area during the captivity. Before the time of David and up until the end of Solomon’s reign the form of Hebrew in use is now known as Paleo-Hebrew and this used a very different script to that of the Aramaic style. Going even further back we come to the most ancient Hebrew and this was entirely pictographic. It is believed that Genesis at the time of Moses used the pictographic form. Thus we look at the letters of the first word in Genesis pronounced in classic Hebrew as “BERESHEET” and examine this in the light of the most ancient form of Hebrew. The ‘E’s in this word are purely arbitrary because the original language did not include any vowels; they came much later. The letters are expressed as follows from right to left with the symbolic pictographic symbols as expressed in ancient Hebrew…

BETH = Tent, meaning a House

RESH = Head of a man, meaning the Head or Chief

ALEPH = An Ox Head, meaning First, No.1, The Almighty

SHIN = Sharp, meaning to pierce, hurt or destroy

YOD = Hand, meaning by one’s own power or volition

TAU = Cross

The message we can glean from this would read something like… “The HEAD of the HOUSE of GOD will be PIRECED or HURT by his own HAND on a CROSS” – an amazing prophetic description of the centrepiece of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The sacrificial death of our Saviour and great Redeemer.

Furthermore, when BETH and RESH are combined together they form the word B_R or BAR, which in ancient pictographic Hebrew literally means HOUSE HEAD or the HEAD of the HOUSE. In our modern Western culture, we would see the head of the house as being the Father. But not so in Hebrew culture. In Hebrew thinking the head of the house was the PRINCIPAL SON as the INHERITOR of the perpetuation of the house. An example can be seen when Jacob-Israel gave Joseph the Coat of Colours. This made him the PRINCIPAL SON; something well recognised by his brothers, and that provoked such jealousy that they were prepared to kill him as a result.

It is true to say that the Hebrew word BEN is the general word for son, but the word BAR specifically signifies the FIRST (PRINCIPAL) SON, i.e. the Son that carries the birthright of the Father. It is interesting that, by the time Christ came to earth, the JEWS had adopted ARAMAIC as the main language. Hebrew and Aramaic had become almost indistinguishable and when Matthew recorded Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, he used the term Simon BAR (son of) JONA. The word translated BAR is unique and only used as a single word on this ONE occasion in the entire New Testament. THE VERY FIRST acknowledgment of WHO JESUS IS – THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD! What’s more Matthew (being a Levite) specifically wrote for the JEWS. The word BAR would have a special meaning to them.

We now move onto the second word in Genesis 1:1 – the Hebrew word BARA. This is a repeat of the first 3 letters of the Bible – BETH RESH ALEPH.