Hermeneutics

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

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?