Bible: Old Testament: English Standard Version

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

This is the opening line of the Old Testament and one of the foundational statements of Christian theology. It introduces the foundational figure of the biblical canon—God himself—and shows him to be the source of existence for everything else. This verse also states that the universe had a beginning (i.e., it is not eternal in and of itself), and that it exists in a contingent relationship upon God’s divine action.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

This quotation, also from the first chapter of the Old Testament, relates a fundamental doctrine of theological anthropology: that humanity is made in the image of God. This has never been taken to mean that humanity’s physical form is reflective of God’s physical form (since in both Jewish and Christian traditions, God is spiritual), but rather that humanity reflects God’s special intentionality toward us, who bear certain aspects of his own character: rationality, morality, creativity, relationality, spirituality, etc.

“Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”

This is from one of the opening scenes of the Abrahamic narratives, showing the transition from Genesis’s focus on humanity’s primeval history to God’s intentional relationship with one particular branch of humanity, which begins with Abraham (called Abram here, as in all the early stories of his