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Considering Prophetic Interpretations: The Beginning
Barbara L. Klika, MSW, Undershepherd, Life Coach
September 2026
Written for Wisconsin Christian Newspaper
Today, we are considering how we think and interpret the short phrase: “In the Beginning” or “From the beginning.” It is an interactive study this month about beginnings and endings.
His work on our behalf was promised already there at the beginning in Genesis 3:15: although it had already been accomplished before the Foundation of the world was laid.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
(Some might want to stand up and shout or sing: Victory in Jesus!! I can hear the old hymn sounding in my minds ear… Yes! He IS our Redeemer and Savior and soon coming King and Bridegroom. For the online readers, here is a link to an updated version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfaWN8vSjzs )
Please read through these next 13 short verses and consider how you understand these phrases and what they mean to you. What ‘beginning” is identified? How did the creation of all things happen? Who spoke? What things are noted as “from the beginning?” Who is described as “both the beginning and the end?” Make a quick note of your thoughts in each reference.
We will then consider the most practical yet elegant description I have found of the comparison of how we interpret things from our Western Greek mindset and from an Hebraic viewpoint. I thank friends and authors, Bill and Karen Bishop, for permission to extensively quote their work.
The verses:
In the beginning God created the heaven(s) and the earth. Genesis 1:1
… And God said,… Genesis 1:3,9,11,14,20,24,26,29; 2:18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.
John 1:1-3
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, John 1:14
Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever. Psalm 119: 160
For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto
this time, neither shall be. Mark 13:19
But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. John 6:64
For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. / He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:16-17
And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: Ephesians 3:9
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; …
1 John 1:1-2
Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
1 John 2:7
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the End,” says the Lord,
“who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty”
Revelation 1:8
The Comparison of Greek and Hebraic Worldview Interpretation
BEGIN QUOTE
The Hebraic thought patterns vs. those of our western culture are decidedly different. Therefore, we must remember that those who wrote all the books of our Bible (including the New Testament) were of Hebrew origin, and the writings themselves reflect Hebraic thought patterns. They did not pattern their writings to accommodate the western way of thought, so to apply western thinking to their writings can easily lead to errant understanding.
Mankind (particularly in our western world) has become adept at thinking of time in a linear fashion. When someone mentions one event relative to a second event, we picture a time LINE. This straight line extends from the past (on the left) through the present and into the future (on the right). It is like a railroad track which runs from the west coast to the east coast in one linear horizontal level line.
We have come to understand that Father's patterns are actually spiraling in nature. Rather than being a flat horizontal measure of time, Father's view can be better understood as a circular version with a spiraling upward trend. If we picture that railroad running from the ground up into the air in a continuous spiraling motion, we see what might be a more appropriate view of time from Father's perspective. Each 360 degree rotation of the spiral begins a new cycle, yet the spiral continues onward and upward. In our human existence, we repeat these cycles over and again, and we age as this repetition occurs. This aging is represented by the upward motion.
No two cycles will be exactly the same. They will, however, maintain an integrity of essence as they progress upward with each new cycle. The word “integrity” here means: a steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code. The “essence” is this code. Essence is: the intrinsic, indispensable quality which characterizes and identifies something. This integrity of essence then is a steadfast adherence to God's moral code - His imposed character and identity within the cyclical layering. It cannot deviate. It must maintain its character throughout the cyclical advancement. It is uniform throughout. This repetitive upward spiral motion is the basis of the Hebraic thought pattern.
After seven days elapse, a new week begins and the seven days are repeated yet again. Though they may be similar, they will not be identical to the seven days which just transpired, and time will have intervened between the two. In the spiraling motion, day one of the new week would be over day one of the previous week. Likewise our months, seasons, and years progress as well. It is a type of wheels within wheels, except that the wheels would be spiraling.
--- As time marches on, the cycles continue ever round and around, spiraling upward as they go. The pattern was orchestrated in the week of creation by our sovereign God, and it carries through with each weekly Sabbath, new month, annual Sabbath Festival celebration, and new year - as well as in seven and fifty year cycles.
The spiraling cyclical patterning is not just relative to calendar cycles, but the same repetitive thought pattern relates to the Biblical text as well. So it is that Torah (the first five books of the Bible) was given to man first in written form (via Father) through Moses: [then in human form through Yeshua…and finally by the Spirit]
--- Unfortunately, man's linear thinking predominates in much of the church today. This linear sequencing starts and stops, with abrupt changes. The standard theological orientation establishes a time line and designates the far left as the past and the far right as the future. It then puts a dividing line at the timing of the cross of Calvary and teaches that everything to the left of that divide is rendered virtually obsolete by Y'shua's victory. According to this view, everything which preceded the cross is severed from that which follows it. The relevance of anything to the left then simply vanishes. As a result, much of our modern theology is built almost exclusively around the gospels and the epistles of Paul which fall to the right of that line. This, in effect, totally re-orchestrates the Divine moral code.
By its very nature the spiraling pattern uses repetition as the mechanism of instruction.
--- Using the linear format, lines can be drawn to create new beginnings with new thought processes, and such deviation is totally acceptable. With this linear format, there is no subset with which to contend. Any correlation to the past (or left side) is obscured, and man can simply disregard that which came before.
END QUOTE
Two Trees Two Kingdoms Two Kings Vol. 1 – excerpts from pages 6-10:
Permission given by authors, Karen and Bill Bishop August 2026
As we consider the difference between the common left/right continuum of Greek thought and the cyclical, repetitive and building depth of context of Hebraic thought it is easy to see how we have been divorced from the full context.
A demonstration of this is found in the phrase “In” or “from” “The beginning.”
Because the linear thought flow represents Messiah’s work on our behalf as the midpoint that changes everything, all the foundation work laid “in the beginning” has been disregarded.
In the inspired Hebrew language, the word translated as “in the beginning” is transliterated as B’reisheit into English. It is from a root word meaning the “head or the source” of something, as in the head of a river. Instead of our usual first Greek thought, of “time” it is not specifically a time-oriented word but a “source from which everything flowed.” Another root word involved here points to “the way or the path.” This word study alone is enough to write an entire book so I am only summarizing here.
Did you note that “God” is said to be the Creator which is later clarified to mean The Word Who was with God and Who was God: His Son, Yeshua/Jesus? Creation came to be in the beginning by God’s Spoken Word which was Yeshua/Jesus who later became flesh and dwelt among us.
(NOTE: Since all things were created THROUGH the Word, our Messiah, there is an infrequently addressed Hebraic understanding of the Fatherhood of Jesus per Isaiah’s words:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 )
Per Blue Letter Bible online program the specific phrase “From the beginning” is used 40 times in the whole Scriptures. This is found in both “Old” and “New” Testaments. The Greek word “arche” G746 is noted in Thayer’s as meaning “the absolute beginning of all things.”
I suspect most Christians may not make that thematic or cyclical connection. Because of the linear view that nothing to the “left” of the Cross has any modern bearing, they may just think of it as referring to only Jesus/Yeshua’s physical life on earth. As noted in Bishop’s eloquent description, it is then easy to construct divisions in the Word and interpret outside of the basic context that our Father CREATED for all of us THROUGH THE PRESENCE OF YESHUA from the Beginning in Genesis.
This interpretation then allows for creating the divisive viewpoint that Jesus/Yeshua changed what the “Father” declared.. yet it was IN and THROUGH JESUS by our Father that things were declared. It allows for the idea that He would change teachings that HE HIMSELF had established. That does not concur with Scripture or even make logical sense!
God is not a man, that he should lie; Numbers 23:19a
For I am the Lord, I change not; Malachi 3:6a
It is Hebraic understanding when Mark declares Yeshua’s words that affliction of the end times will compare to that of the very beginning, to the left. I think of the words “tohu v’bohu” translated as “formless and void” in Genesis 1:1; not just of the beginning of His work in His physical life on earth, to the right.
When John reports that Yeshua knew “from the beginning” who would betray Him, the cyclical teaching nature of the Word takes us to His obedience before the foundation of the world was laid to be our Redeemer! In Greek thought, it refers to His ministry on earth alone…only the “right” side of the cross.
In Hebraic interpretation, the two examples from Colossians and Ephesians confirm Paul’s understanding that Jesus/Yeshua is “from the beginning:” referring to “the absolute beginning” per Thayer’s --not just His physical life alone.
John’s Gospel affirms all of this connection and then again, in 1,2,3 John, he affirms that Jesus/Yeshua is “from the beginning” as well as countering the Gnostic idea that he could be only spirit by confirming that He was seen and touched in His resurrected physical body.
And finally, in Revelation, we usually see Jesus/Yeshua quoted as saying “I am the Alpha and the Omega”….this is the Greek for the Hebrew words, Alef and Tav. We understand that Jesus/Yeshua spoke Hebrew and Aramaic. Using “Alef and Tav” brings other Scriptural cyclical teaching or thematic connections into view that are nearly invisible when presented in another language. (No room to delve into that this time!) Those who wrote the “New” Testament in Greek drew from the Septuagint to decide which Greek words were the closest equivalent to the Hebrew. Alef/Tav and Alpha/Omega represent the first and last letters of the respective alphabets. This is a “merism,” a Greek literary device: an inclusive summary of everything from the beginning to the end and everything in between.
A merism: In the beginning…from the beginning… until the end.. and everything in between.
This represents a Hebraic cyclical thought pattern for the Whole Word…not artificially linearly divided into two different parts …but blossoming upward in greater revelation and understanding each time we spiral through the annual cycles.
Jesus/Yeshua was there “in the Beginning.” He is there ‘from the beginning.” He is here for those who are willing to look to Him and honor His ways. He is coming again soon. Prepare yourself as His Bride!
Considering_Prophecy_Interpreations_Part_4__WCN__Sept_2026__In_the_Beginning0.docx