# H7225 - reshit **Strong's:** [H7225](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h7225/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** ray-sheeth' **Part of speech:** feminine noun **Root:** from *H7218 - rosh* (רֹאשׁ, "head"), the same root behind *Rosh Hashanah* ("head of the year") ## Semantic range (Brown-Driver-Briggs) 1. **Beginning**, temporal or sequential starting-point. 2. **First**, first in time, place, order, or rank. 3. **Chief, principal**, head, most important. 4. **Choicest, choice part, best**, finest portion (e.g., of harvest). 5. **Firstfruits**, the first-yielded portion offered to YHWH. ## Theological force In [Genesis 1.1](/codex/genesis-1-1/) the word appears in absolute construct without article: *בְּרֵאשִׁית* (*bereshit*), "in [the] beginning." The grammatical question is whether to read this as: - **Absolute**, "In the beginning, God created…" (independent main clause; supports *creatio ex nihilo* and the temporal-origin reading; classical Christian and Jewish exegesis). - **Construct**, "In the beginning of [God's creating]…" (subordinate clause, with v. 1 a temporal modifier of v. 2 or v. 3; followed by some modern critical scholars and Rashi). The Masoretic vowel pointing and the LXX (*ἐν ἀρχῇ*, [G0746 - arche](/codex/g0746-arche/)) both support the absolute reading. The Septuagint translators clearly understood it as an absolute-temporal beginning, and [John 1:1](/codex/john-1-1/), *ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος*, deliberately invokes this exact phrase, predicating eternal pre-existence of the Word *prior to* the temporal beginning *bereshit* names. The other senses of *reshit* (firstfruits, choicest, chief) operate in cultic and wisdom literature contexts and rarely overlap with the temporal-beginning sense, but they share a common metaphorical structure: priority in time, rank, or quality. ## Notable verses ### Beginning (temporal / absolute) - **[Genesis 1.1](/codex/genesis-1-1/)**, *בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים*, "In the beginning God created" - **[Jeremiah 26:1](/codex/jeremiah-26-1/)**, "in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim" - **[Jeremiah 28:1](/codex/jeremiah-28-1/)**, "in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah" ### First / chief / best - **[Exodus 23:19](/codex/exodus-23-19/)**, "the first (*reshit*) of the firstfruits of your soil" - **[Deuteronomy 18:4](/codex/deuteronomy-18-4/)**, "the first (*reshit*) of your grain, your new wine, and your oil" - **[Numbers 18:12](/codex/numbers-18-12/)**, "the best (*reshit*) of the fresh oil" - **[Amos 6:1](/codex/amos-6-1/)**, "the chief (*reshit*) of the nations" - **[Job 8:7](/codex/job-8-7/)**, "though your *reshit* (beginning) was insignificant" - **[Ecclesiastes 7:8](/codex/ecclesiastes-7-8/)**, "the end (*acharit*) of a matter is better than its beginning (*reshit*)" ### Wisdom (a chief biblical theme) - **[Proverbs 1:7](/codex/proverbs-1-7/)**, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning (*reshit*) of knowledge" - **[Proverbs 9:10](/codex/proverbs-9-10/)**, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning (*reshit*) of wisdom" - **[Proverbs 8:22](/codex/proverbs-8-22/)**, "The LORD possessed me at the beginning (*reshit*) of His way" (Wisdom personified) - **[Psalm 111:10](/codex/psalms-111-10/)**, same sense paired with *yirath YHWH* ### Firstborn / firstfruits cluster - **[Deuteronomy 21:17](/codex/deuteronomy-21-17/)**, "the firstborn (*reshit ono*)", first issue of strength ## Patristic / scholarly note Augustine (*Confessions* 11.5-13; *City of God* 11) makes [Genesis 1:1](/codex/genesis-1-1/)'s *bereshit* the locus for his discussion of time as a created reality: time begins with creation, not before. There is no "before" the beginning because temporal succession itself is part of what was made. Aquinas (*ST* I, q.46) follows this line and argues that the temporal-beginning reading is consistent with, though not strictly demonstrable from, [Genesis 1:1](/codex/genesis-1-1/) alone; the doctrine of a temporal beginning is held by faith. [Proverbs 8:22](/codex/proverbs-8-22/)'s identification of personified Wisdom as YHWH's *reshit* fed into pre-Christian Jewish (Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon) and Christian Logos / Sophia Christology, eventually feeding the prologue of John ([John 1.1](/codex/john-1-1/)) where the Word is *en archē*. The Arian controversy turned partly on whether [Proverbs 8:22](/codex/proverbs-8-22/)'s "the LORD possessed me as the beginning of His way" implied that Christ-as-Wisdom was a created being. Athanasius (*Discourses Against the Arians* II.18ff) argues the verse refers to the eternal generation of the Son, not creation in time. ## Verses in this codex _See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here._ ## See also - [H1254 - bara](/codex/h1254-bara/), "to create" (the verb *bereshit barāʾ*) - [H0430 - elohim](/codex/h0430-elohim/), "God" (subject of [Genesis 1:1](/codex/genesis-1-1/)) - [G0746 - arche](/codex/g0746-arche/), Greek/LXX equivalent (*en archē*) - *H7218 - rosh*, "head," the root