'Beginning' in the Bible
In the beginning God (Elohim) created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth.
The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar [in Babylonia].
And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one [unified] people, and they all have the same language. This is only the beginning of what they will do [in rebellion against Me], and now no evil thing they imagine they can do will be impossible for them.
He journeyed on from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
Yet when they had devoured them, it could not be detected that they had eaten them, because they were still as thin and emaciated as before. Then I awoke [but again I fell asleep and dreamed].
The steward searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.
“Reuben, you are my firstborn;My might, the beginning of my strength and vigor,Preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power [that should have been your birthright].