THE IDEA THAT ALL OF THE COSMOS CAME FROM NOTHING--AN ABSOLUTE VACUMVN OF NOTHING

OJOHN'S STUDY--verse 1:1

 (en arch). Arch is definite, though anarthrous like our at home, in town, and the similar Hebrew be reshith in Genesis 1:1. But Westcott notes that here John carries our thoughts beyond the beginning of creation in time to eternity. There is no argument here to prove the existence of God any more than in Genesis. It is simply assumed. Either God exists and is the Creator of the universe 

as scientists like Eddington and Jeans assume or matter is eternal or it has come out of nothing.

Was (hn). Three times in this sentence John uses this imperfect of eimi to be which conveys no idea of origin for God or for the Logos, simply continuous existence. Quite a different verb (egeneto, became) appears in verse Genesis 14 for the beginning of the Incarnation of the Logos.

 See the distinction sharply drawn in John 8:58 "before Abraham came (genesqai) I am" (egw eimi, timeless existence).