The largest contributing factor in mistranslations of the Biblical text is that the translators and readers of the Bible come from a western philosophy of thought. The original authors of the Biblical text, the Hebrews, are classified as Orientals whose philosophy of thought is eastern. Many times these two philosophies are in opposition of each other. For a more detailed description of the differences between western and eastern thought see my article at the Ancient Hebrew Research Center.

Most English translations of Genesis 1:1 read something like "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". Most readers assume that this is an accurate translation of the original Hebrew but, this is not the case. The first word in the Hebrew Bible is "bereshiyt". The "be" at the beginning is a prefix meaning "in", "with", or "within". The word "reshiyt" means "beginning" and can be the beginning of a space or time. It is derived from the root "rosh" meaning "head". The word "the" in the English translations is added to text as it does not exist in the Hebrew. Hence, "bereshiyt" literally means "in beginning" or "in a beginning" (the articles "a" and "an" are implied in Hebrew). From this we can conclude that Genesis 1:1 is not specifically speaking of "the" beginning, but may be speaking of "a" beginning.

The second word in the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:1 is the verb "bara". This word is always translated as "create" in this verse and is usually theologically understood to mean "to make out of nothing". If we compare Genesis 1:26 and Genesis 2:7 we will see that this is not possible. In Genesis 2:7 the Bible states that God "made" the man from the ground but in Genesis 1:26 it states that God "created" man. Therefore, the Hebrew word "bar" does not mean "to create out of nothing". This very same Hebrew word is used in 1 Samuel 2:29 but is translated as "fattening". The Hebrews language was very concrete oriented meaning its vocabulary is related to something that can be sense by the five senses. Words such as "believe", "trust" and "create" are all abstract words that are foreign concepts to the Ancient Hebrews. In the Samuel passage we see the original meaning of the verb "bara" which is to be "fat".

The third word in the Hebrew text is "elohiym". This is the plural form of the word "eloah" and is usually translated as "God" or "god". The original meaning of the word is "one with power" and can refer to a deity, man or angel. As the word in Genesis 1:1 is plural we much understand Hebrew plurals. In English a plural word always refers to "quantity", but in Hebrew it can also be "quality". In other words, something that is very large or great can be written in the plural form. Therefore the word "elohiym" can be translated as "god" (a great god) or as "gods" (many gods). The context of the verse will usually dictate which type of plurality the word is referring to. In this case the verb "bara" defines the "elohiym". Each Hebrew verb identifies the number and gender of the subject of the verb. The word "bara" identifies the subject as masculine singular hence the noun "elohiym" must be translated as "god" rather than "gods".

The first three Hebrew words of Genesis 1:1; "bereshiyt bara elohiym" is best translated as "in a beginning God fattened....". What does it mean to "fatten" the heavens and the earth. The idea of fattening something is to fill it up. Genesis chapter one is about "filling" up the heavens and the earth (with the sun, moon, stars, birds, fish, animals and plants) not its creation. For a Hebraic translation of Genesis chapter one which reflects this filling up of the heavens and the earth, see my translation at the Ancient Hebrew Research Center.