1a. Ἐν ἀρχῇ. The absence of the article is normal, even classical, in such prepositional phrases, especially in designations of time (BDF 255 [3]). Thus Thucydides writes (I 35,5) ὥσπερ ἐν ἀρχῇ ὑπείπομεν, and Plato (Timaeus 28b), ἐν ἀρχῇ δεῖν σκοπεῖν. The phrase is therefore good Greek for ‘at the beginning’ and is not to be regarded as a Semitism. It occurs only four times in the NT, here in Jn 1:1–2, in Acts 11:15 and in Phil 4:15, but the latter texts, which refer respectively