בראשית
In the beginning.
ראשית
noun, feminine; beginning; also,
chief.
From ראש
noun, masculine; head.
Common Semitic word; see also:
Arabic, Sabean, Ethiopic,
Amharic, Assyrian, Aramaic,
Palmyrene, Phoenician, Punic.
In the beginning
before there was time
before the big bang
before creatio ex nihilo
There was a singularity—
or perhaps there wasn’t—
we need a quantum theory of
gravity;
Higgs boson wasn’t enough.
In the beginning—
at less than Planck time—
general relativity cannot be
guaranteed.
Instead of singularity—infinite curvature?
In the beginning
our universe began
or was infinite
or was merely one oscillation of
big bang then big crunch
or was the birth of our tiny little
corner
of the multi-dimensional
or variable multiverse.
In the beginning
God created the heavens and the
earth.
Or did he merely create order
from his dark materials:
infinite night and chaos?
In the beginning,
who knows what God(s) did?
Did Moses or the Elohist,
the Hebrews or the Jews?
Did Peter, James, John, or Paul?
Did Jerome, Augustine, or Luther,
or the 47 scholars of King Henry
VIII?
Do I listen to
Claus Westermann
Steven Hawking
Jorge Mario Bergoglio
Leonard Susskind
Walter Breuggemann
Jonathan Henry Sacks
Jonathan Henry Sacks
the priest at the cathedral
the Anglican vicar down the road
the Baptist preacher Sunday morning
or the still small voice
that some say is the witness
of יהוה, Himself?
In the beginning—
What is the Good News?
