---
title: Genesis 1:1
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/genesis-1-1/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/genesis-1-1.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Genesis 1:1
testament: OT
section: Law
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Genesis 1:1

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

## JW Usage

JWs affirm this verse wholeheartedly and read it as establishing Jehovah alone as Creator — which is exactly why the Watchtower must place Jesus somewhere inside the created order. Because the Son is understood to be Jehovah's first creation and then his instrument, Genesis 1:1 is taken to describe the Father's work, with the Son's involvement supplied later from Colossians 1:16 and Proverbs 8:30. The verse is also used to press monotheism: one God created, so any claim that three persons created must be polytheism in disguise.

## Protestant Usage

This verse is common ground, and it is worth saying so before you say anything else. Both of you believe one God made everything from nothing. The disagreement is about who was doing it. Genesis 1 does not present a solitary worker. Verse 2 has the Spirit of God moving over the waters. Verse 3 has God creating by speaking — by his word. Verse 26 has God saying "let us make man in our image." John then opens his Gospel with a deliberate echo of this chapter's first three words and tells you who the speaking Word was, and that all things came into existence through him. Read Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1-3 side by side and the second is plainly commentary on the first. On the polytheism worry, be careful not to overclaim. Christians are not saying three gods created; we are saying the one God did, and that Scripture names Father, Word and Spirit as present and active in that one work. Isaiah 44:24 says Jehovah created alone, and that verse is a problem for the Watchtower's arrangement rather than for this one — it rules out an external assistant, which is precisely what the Watchtower needs the Son to be. Compare Genesis 1:3, John 1:3, Isaiah 44:24.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Let Us Make Man — The Isaiah 44:24 Trap](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/genesis1-26-let-us.md) — Genesis 1:26 / Isaiah 44:24 / Job 33:4 [Deity of Christ]
- [Two Matches, One Candle — How Three Persons Create as One](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/trinity-causal-overdetermination.md) — Causal overdetermination and opera ad extra sunt indivisa [Deity of Christ]
- [The Prologue Has Two Bookends — Read John 1:18 Before You Argue About John 1:1](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john1-1-and-1-18-inclusio.md) — John 1:1 and 1:18 — the opening and closing of John's prologue say the same three things [Deity of Christ]