Genesis 1:1

Pope Clement VIII, Jerome's Prefaces, On Worship

• ON THE WORSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE SCRIPTURES. — Lacordaire quotes the first line of Scripture as the foundation that overthrows idolatry and pantheism

  "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth"

Commentary on the Pentateuch of Moses

• Canons Bearing a Torch Before the Pentateuch — Cited for the Lateran Council's two literal senses of "In the beginning"

  "In the beginning God created heaven and earth"

Chapter I (The Six Days of Creation)

• Vulgate Text: Genesis 1:1-31 — Full Vulgate text of Genesis 1 quoted

  "1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth."

• Verse 1: In the beginning God created heaven and earth — Section heading for the verse commentary

  "Verse 1: In the beginning God created heaven and earth"

• In the Beginning: Nine Interpretations — Nine interpretations of "In the beginning" expounded; first interpretation: "in the beginning of time"

  "1. IN THE BEGINNING. -- First, St. Augustine, book I of On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis, ch. 1; Ambrose and Basil, homily 1 on the Hexameron: "In the beginning," they say, that is, in the first origin or start, not of eternity, not of aeviternity, but of time and of the world"

• In the Beginning: Nine Interpretations — God created heaven and earth in the first instant of time, not before the first day

  "Note that God created heaven and earth not in time, but in the beginning of time, that is, in the first moment of time, namely in the first instant of the world."

• In the Beginning: Nine Interpretations — Second interpretation: "In the Son," i.e. in Christ as wisdom of the Father

  ""In the beginning," they say, that is, in the Son; for the Apostle teaches that all things were created through the Son as the idea and wisdom of the Father, Col. 1:16."

• He Created — "He created" means from nothing, as the mother of the Maccabees teaches

  "HE CREATED -- properly, that is, from nothing, from no pre-existing matter."

• God (Elohim): Thirteen Definitions — Explanation of the word "Elohim" as the name for God the creator

  "For "God" in Hebrew is elohim, which is derived from el, that is "strong," and ala, that is "he adjured, obligated, bound""

• Heaven and Earth: Four Interpretations — First opinion: heaven and earth here mean prime matter

  "First, Saint Augustine, book I of On Genesis Against the Manichaeans, chapter VII: Heaven and earth, he says, are here called prime matter"

• Heaven and Earth: Four Interpretations — Fourth and most probable opinion: heaven means the empyrean heaven

  "Fourth, it is most probable that by heaven is here understood the first and highest, namely the empyrean, which Paul calls the third heaven, David the heaven of heavens, and which is the seat of the Blessed"

• Heaven and Earth: Four Interpretations — "And earth" means the globe of the earth with the abyss of waters

  "AND EARTH. -- That is, the globe of the earth together with the abyss, that is, the mass of waters, poured into and spread over the earth"

Related

• Moses
• Creation