This phrase opens the Genesis creation account, describing God's act of making the heavens and the earth.
What is "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth"? (Genesis 1:1)
On this first day of creation in Genesis (and paralleled in Moses 2 & Abraham 4), God divided light from darkness.
What is Day 1 (or the first day)?
In Genesis 1, God creates mankind male and female in this image.
What is "in His own image" (or "in the image of God")? (Genesis 1:27)
After finishing creation, God rested and blessed this day in Genesis 2 (and referenced in Moses 3).
What is the seventh day (or Sabbath)? (Genesis 2:2-3)
In Genesis 2 and Moses 3, God forms this first man from the dust of the ground before breathing life into him.
Who is Adam? (Genesis 2:7; Moses 3:7)
In the Book of Abraham, the creation begins when "the Gods" do this to the heavens and the earth, rather than creating ex nihilo.
What is organize and form (or "organized and formed")? (Abraham 4:1)
The sun, moon, and stars were created on this day in Genesis 1, matching the pattern in Moses 2 and Abraham 4.
What is the fourth day?
Moses 3 describes man as the "first flesh upon the earth" but notes that all things were first created this way before becoming physical.
What is spiritually? (Moses 3:5,7)
God planted this garden eastward and placed man there to dress and keep it.
What is the Garden of Eden? (Genesis 2:8; Moses 3:8-9)
According to Moses 3:5, all things were created spiritually in heaven before they appeared physically on earth, including these living creatures.
What are plants, animals, and mankind? (or "every plant of the field... and every beast of the field")
According to Moses 2, God reveals that He created these things "by the word of [His] power," emphasizing divine command.
What are "these things" (or the heavens and the earth)? (Moses 2:1,5)
In Abraham 4, the Gods prepare the earth over multiple "times" or periods, but the overall structure mirrors these six creative periods in Genesis.
What are the six days (of creation)?
Abraham 4 highlights that "the Gods" took counsel together before forming man, echoing Genesis' plural "Let us make man."
What is "Let us make man in our image"? (Genesis 1:26; cf. Abraham 4)
In Moses 3, the Lord God forms man from the dust, breathes into his nostrils the breath of life, and man becomes this.
What is a living soul? (Moses 3:7)
In Abraham 4, creation is described as the work of these plural beings who organize the elements and say "Let us" at key moments
Who are the Gods? (Abraham 4:1, 26-27)