ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Monite Sanuali 2, 2023

The Beginning Word of God בראשית

Ko e ‘Uluaki Folofola ‘a e ‘Otua

GENESIS 1:1

IN THE BEGINNING, GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH.

SENESI 1:1

‘I he kamata‘anga na‘e fakatupu ‘e he ‘Otua ‘a e ngaahi langi mo māmani.

The opening three words of the Bible, "In the beginning," are one word in Hebrew, b'reshit. Already in the word, reshit ("beginning"), God winks at the Word by whom all things came into being. An ancient Jewish paraphrase, called a Targum, read, "In Wisdom, God created." Why Wisdom? Because in Proverbs, Wisdom says, "The LORD possessed me at the beginning [reshit] of his work [of creation]" (8:22). Wisdom is saying, "I am the Beginning, by whom God created all things."

The Messiah is this Wisdom of God, the Beginning by whom God the Father formed all things. "In the beginning was the Word," John writes, nodding toward Genesis (1:1). Later, in Revelation, Jesus identifies himself as "the Beginning [Greek: arche] of God's creation" (3:14). He is the Beginning not because he is made-he is eternal with the Father and Spirit-but because "by him all things were created. all things were created through him and for him" (Col. 1:16).

Jesus the Beginning restarts the world in love. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). We receive a regenesis from this divine Reshit. Dead but now alive. Darkened but now enlightened by Christ, the "light of the world" (John 8:12). In him by whom all things came to be, all the good gifts of God come to us.

Beginning God, begin and complete in us the fullness of life in Christ.