Genesis 1:1

The Bible's first sentence establishes three things before any discussion: there was a beginning, there is a God prior to that beginning, and everything that exists is his work.

The contrast with neighboring myths is striking. In the region's cosmogonies, the world usually emerges from fights between deities or from the bodies of defeated gods. Here there is no battle: there is a word, and order appears.

The phrase "the heavens and the earth" is a Hebrew device that joins two extremes to indicate totality — something like saying "top to bottom".

It is also worth noting what the text is not: it does not answer the questions of a modern science manual, because it was not written for that. Its question is who, not how.

It is the most quoted verse in the Bible after John 3:16 and the natural doorway for anyone reading the book for the first time.