The Head of the House

The first word of the Bible, Berashit, is the fountainhead of the biblical revelation and is linked to many pages throughout this site. Berashit is formed from the noun ראשית (Rashith, Beginning) prefixed with the letter ב (Beyt, House), which signifies the preposition in, with, or by. This demonstrates the self-reflective holographic nature of the Hebrew language since a House serves as a natural symbol of a place to go in.

The triliteral root of Berashit, ראש (Rosh), is variously translated as first, head, or chief. God used this root when He declared (Isaiah 44.6):

I am the first ראשון (Roshon) and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

Most people have encountered Rosh in the phrase Rosh HaShanah, the First of the Year. A typical example of its use is found in the verse "and each one was an head of the house ראש בית (Rosh Beyt) of their fathers among the thousands of Israel." Because this phrase is an anagram of Berashith, they both share the same numerical weight:

This means that the position of Berashith at the head of the biblical house is implicit within itself, it is self-descriptive. And as discussed at length on Spoke 2, Beyt symbolizes the Word, so Rosh Beyt connotes the First Word, which indeed it is.

God the Father

Perhaps the deepest significance of Berashit is found in the primary title of God used throughout the New Testament, God the Father. When the Lord Jesus spoke of God, the title He used most frequently was simply The Father which the Unity Holograph shows to be mathematically integrated with the the two primary Hebrew names of God, YHVH (The LORD, 26) and Elohim (God, 86). At other times, he used this title in apposition with Ho Theos (God, 354), as when He said:

Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

This title appears frequently in the New Testament with many variations such as God our Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.. The exact words written in the verse just quoted are:

This is the nominative form with the definite articles. We have therefore a three-fold set:

This set reiterates and amplifies the meaning derived from the first word of the Hebrew language, Av:

(Father, Av) = (Aleph, Leader/Guide) + (Beyt, House)

A similar analysis of the Beyt KeyWord Ben (Son) reveals its meaning as the Posterity of the House. The words Av and Ben unite (sharing a common Beyt/House) to form the Stone representing Jesus Christ in whom "the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily" (cf. Colosians 2.9, John 14).

Putting these ideas together yields two fundamentally independent witnesses to the primacy of God the Father:

We have two independent witnesses here. The first is based on the symbolic meaning of the first word of the Hebrew language, and the second is based on the numeric weight of an anagram of the first word of the Bible! Returning to the first word, we see an implication of the Father's position as the first Person in the Trinity:

God the Father = 913 = In the Beginning

The numinous ramifications of this identity flood the soul. Though each Person of the Trinity is eternal God and therefore each Person was in the beginning, God the Father has a special dignity as the first Person "from whom are all things" and it is this that resonates so strongly here. As the mathematical signature of God the Father, it identifies Him as the ultimate source of Reality and Scripture. And since (Av, Father) is the first Hebrew word, it reiterates the linguistic fact that the Father is in the beginning of the language He designed for "the praise of his glory."

This integrates with the broader sense of Av as the origin, source, or foundation of something. The link between God the Father and Creation also coheres with the order within the Godhead. Though the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each eternal God, and God is One, yet the Father is first in the sense that he begets the Son. And from the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy Spirit. Simple as ABC, or rather, Aleph (Av, Father), Beyt (Ben, Son), Gimel (Gomel, Abundant Giver - The Holy Spirit). All things are from the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, for "there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him."

Though each divine Person is fully involved in every act of God, and Scripture ascribes each act to each Person, yet there is a special link between God the Father and the idea of creation, as mentioned by Berkoff in his Systematic Theology:

Scripture teaches us to recognize a certain economy in the work of creation and redemption and warrants our speaking of the Father and our creation, of the Son and our redemption, and of the Holy Spirit and a our sanctification.

The veracity of this pattern can not be denied; God used it to established the order of the first three books: Genesis (Creation), Exodus (Redemption) and Leviticus (Sanctification). This sequence is foundational and it regularly recurs in a great variety of settings. Likewise, the infinite mystery of the Triune God will constantly reappear throughout this study, particularly on the first three Spokes which were specially designed to reveal the nature of each Divine Person. Solutions to unanswerable questions about how God can be Three-in-One are neither offered nor considered. The good fruit grows in the rich soil of relationship with God, not speculative knowledge about God. If we can not even explain how people can be people, who but a fool would try explain how God can be God? Yet we can know Him, for He has given us the Bible for that very purpose. And this is enough, for through it we come to know Him Who is "the true God, and eternal life."