Was the Creation the Beginning or Was The Beginning the time God Created the Heavens and Earth

Everyone believes what they choose to believe I know I do. The problem often is a distance between what people believe and what truth is. Folks, as convinced as we believe Genesis 1:1 can be translated:

 

• As a statement that the cosmos had an absolute beginning (In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth).
• As a statement describing the condition of the world when God began creating (When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...).

 

They say that by the 2nd century the first translation had become the dominant one. I wonder what was believed before Genesis was written and up to the second century.

 

Those same folks claim modern scholars believe that the second is closer to the original meaning. At least both beliefs accept that God created the heavens and earth.