. . . we may look at the first words
of the Septuagint, ἐν ἀρχῇ, which render the Hebrew בראשׁית . The latter is
traditionally translated as an independent clause (“in the beginning”), even
though the syntactic ambiguity of these opening words leaves room for other
interpretations, such as a dependent temporal clause (“when God began”). The
Greek equivalent, ἐν ἀρχῇ, is a so-called literal translation of בראשׁית : ἐν
(“in”) represents the prepositional bet, while ἀρχή (“beginning”) corresponds
to ראשׁית (“beginning”). Both are standard equivalents. We can say more about
this rendering, however. The phrase ἐν ἀρχῇ appears frequently in Greek
sources. It can express “in the beginning” of a concrete time period or event,
as in Thucydides (Hist. 1.35.5) and Plato (Phaedr. 67d12), or the notion
“first” (as opposed to “later”), as in Isocrates (Archid. 103) and particularly
in sources contemporary to the translation of the Septuagint, such as
P.Cair.Zen. 1.59029 line 1 (258 BCE) and OGI 219 line 3 (197 or 279–274 BCE).
With ἐν ἀρχῇ, the Septuagint translator has made a statement about the temporal
nature of creation. Thus, the use of ἐν ἀρχῇ in Gen. 1:1 was not merely
considered appropriate as a mimetic rendering of the Hebrew; it was also a
common phrase in Greek literature that adequately represented the Jewish
translator’s interpretation of the source text. It retained some of the ambiguity
inherent to the phrase in Hebrew, and is, as such, a theological statement.
(Marieke Dhont, "Septuagint Translation Technique and Jewish Hellenistic
Exegesis," in The T&T Clark Handbook Septuagint Research, ed.
William A. Ross and W. Edward Glenny [London: T&T Clark, 2021], 24-25)
