Early Jewish readings of Genesis 1

Says Genesis opens, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1, BSB). It calls the first day יוֹם אֶחָד (yom echad, “day one”; BSB “the first day,” 1:5) and counts six days, each closed by evening and morning (1:5–31).

Targum Onqelos renders 1:1 בְּקַדְמִין בְּרָא יְיָ יָת שְׁמַיָּא וְיָת אַרְעָא, a complete clause with a finite verb. Philo says the six days reflect not God’s need of time but the order created things required (Opif. 13). He notes the first day is called “one” (Opif. 15) and denies “the beginning” is temporal (Opif. 26). Jubilees places the creation of the angels on the first day (Jub 2:2) and grounds the Sabbath in the six days (2:17–18). 4 Ezra rehearses the six days in prayer, naming a spirit of the firmament on day two and Behemoth and Leviathan kept from day five (4 Ezra 6:38–54). Josephus says that on day two God set a crystalline firmament round the heaven, that Moses said “one day” rather than “first,” and that the world was made in six days (Ant. 1.1.1). In 2 Macc 7:28 a mother bids her son know “that God did not make them out of the things that existed”; whether she means absolute nothing is debated (see note.historical.Rom.4.1-Rom.4.25.creation-from-nothing). These are their views.

Uncertain None of these readings decides the syntax of 1:1–3 or the nature of the days. No lean is taken here, and this background does not fix the meaning of 1:1–3 or the days.