Some people have taught that there are 7 words in the Hebrew version of Gen 1:1 and the word “Et” is a special word that points to Jesus. “Et” is spelled with “את” (aleph and tau) the first and last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. They say this word is untranslated because the Jews forgot the meaning, and that it points to Jesus because says he is the “alpha and omega” in Revelations 1:8 which references the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet. This gets connected to John 1:1 which says “In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It sounds so romantic but this is not true.
Genesis chapter one in Hebrew looks like this:
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ
Bereshit bara Elohim Et Hashamayim vav-Et Haeretz
It reads, in the beginning (בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית) – created (בָּרָ֣א) – God (אֱלֹהִ֑ים) – Et (אֵ֥ת) –
the heavens (הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם) – and et (וְאֵ֥ת) – the earth (הָאָֽרֶץ׃).
“Et” is actually a grammar particle for direct objects and there are two of them in Gen 1:1. There is an “Et” before “the heavens” and another one before “the earth”. The “Et” before the earth is attached to the letter “vav”(וְ), which represents the conjunction “and”. Technically, Genesis 1:1 has 8 words if you count the grammar particles, and 6 words if you don’t. However one can view it as a seven if they count the vav and “et” as a compound word. The “vav” which represents the conjunction “and”, attaches itself to the next word. attaches itself to the next word, so “vav-Et” is two components: “and” plus the direct object marker pointing to “the earth”.
If a person were to say “mother and father” in Hebrew they would say “ema vav-abba” (אמא ואבא). In this case, since the conjunction “and” is between ema and abba, so the “vav” attaches to “abba”. This is how the language represents this particular conjunction. Without the vav (ו), the phrase “ema, abba” (אמא ,אבא) would just be “mother, father” with no conjunction. This whole theory falls apart because “Et” is a grammar particle, not a special word pointing to Jesus. Plus there are two direct object markers in this sentence, each pointing to the objects of “the heavens” and “the earth”.
This doesn’t mean that John 1:1 or Rev 1:18 are in jeopardy, it just means that Et (את) has nothing to do with it. Jesus is still the Word, and the alpha and omega according to the Gospel of John and Revelation. I don’t believe the apostle John wrote these things based on a theory about a direct object marker in the first line of the bible since he as an Israelite would have known what that was because it’s the language of his people.