"En archi" — "In the beginning" — are the first words of both sacred creations. Greek. "archi" has three main meanings: a) the beginning of an event or deed, in the ordinary, simple sense of the word; b) rulership, dominion, or power: c) both in the sense of the old time, the past, the ancient, and in the religious sense – unlimited in time, eternal.

In the original language of the book of Fr. Moses uses this word in the ordinary, first sense: God, before all His actions outside of Himself, created the heavens and the earth. The same word is the first in the Gospel of John, but the Holy Apostle exalts the meaning of the Greek word "archi": "In the beginning was the Word" — the Word, as a personal Divine being, "was in the beginning" — before all other being, moreover: beyond all time, in boundless eternity. In the same Gospel this word is used again, in the same meaning; Here is this verse. When the Jews asked the Lord: "Who are You?" – "Jesus said to them: "From the beginning, as He told you" – Tin arhin, oti ke lalo imin. Thus, the first books of the two Testaments, the Old and the New, begin with one and the same expressive word; but it has a higher meaning in the book of the New Testament than in the book of Genesis.

In the further text of both books, especially in the first five verses of each, we notice this inner connection, even if not deliberately drawn by the Evangelist, since it is not drawn in an exact sequence, but as a connection that follows by itself from the essence of these two subjects of speech. Here the greatness of the New Testament events for us is clearly defined when we compare them with the Old Testament. Let us draw this parallel, putting the Book of Genesis in the first place and the Gospel in the second place for clarity.

Kn. Being:

1. "In the beginning God created..." 1. "And God said, Let it be..."

Gospel:

1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God, and God was the Word." Here the truth of monotheism is exalted by the revelation of the second hypostasis in God (the expression "was unto God" is explained further in verse 16: "The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father").

Kn. Being:

2. "The earth was formless and empty" (lifeless)...

Gospel:

2. "All things were made through Him [the Word], and without Him was not anything made that was made." The verb "said" is specified by the words "said by the Word", the participation of the second Divine Hypostasis, the Creator of the whole world, the executor of the will of the Father.