Elohim is plural, so in the beginning gods created heaven and earth. Or is that the editorial we at work?
I think it‘s thought to be like the Royal We.
For the optional names see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaismand for the specific explanation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism#ElohimAnd if you think there is a simple explanation, have a look at a "basic" bible page in the form as would be typically used for study.
The big writing top right is the start of the first sentence. The dots around the letters are both vowels and punctuation (more on that later).
The left hand first line is the "Translation of Onklos",
Onklos was a Rabbi who translated the bible into some form of Aramaic, and is one of the first recorded bible translations. There is a fundamental principle in jewish teaching that says Anyone Who Went Before Is Cleverer And Beterer That We Are, so this is worthy of study in its own right. Given it's pigeon aramaic written in hebrew characters one has to wonder, but hey ho.
Underneath that on the two column layout is the explanation by
Rashi, who lived in Troyes in the 11th Century, who took a basic explanatory approach to his commentary. So much so that there are tracts after tracts, book after book, written on arguments about what he meant. Given that (apart from Onklos) he is one of the early written commentators (I'm excluding the Talmud here, on which he also provided a commentary) he Cannot Be Wrong. Oh yes, did I mention it's written in a completely different version of the Hebrew alphabet? And, as iis common, without vowels. Given that vowels can change the meaning of a word, and this is meant to be an explanation, you do have to wonder.
Next down we're into the Spanish Influence.
Ibn Ezra is the left hand column, Spanish, 12th Century.
Then we get to
Ramban (right hand column) an interesting character of the 13th century who was significant in Spain. (not to be confused with
Rambam of a similar period who was big in the Spanish Court)
The next block is "The Explanation of Ibn Ezra". Ibn Ezra, who Went Before and therefore Knows More Than Us didn't really explain himself well enough. He needed someone (can't remember who, but they Went Before, too) to explain what he said.
Last - but certainly not least - is
Siforno again Spanish, 16th century.
We haven't got out of either the first
century (error) sentence or the 16th century by this time.
Anyhow, back to the punctuation. This is interesting in many ways because it is also used as the notation for the chanting when sung out loud in the synagogue, and apart from providing another source of challenge for boys going through Bar-Mitzvah (where traditionally (?) they take the place of the cantor or rabbi for the reading of their portion of the scroll) also provides additional fodder for commentary. In the sentence concerned there is an effective comma: In the beginning god created, the heaven and the earth.
Only, you guessed it, it isn't quite so simple.
First, "the heaven and the earth" - the actual way to say that would be ha'shamayim ve ha'aretz. Only, there is an additional "ess" with both:
ess ha'shamayim ve
ess ha'aretz. "Ess" actually has a connotation of "with".
Second, the bit before the comma could as easily be translated "The beginning created god". What is actually certain is the "In the beginning god created" is
not very accurate. It's an awkward sentence - see the extent of commentary on the page.
So, let's put those together: "The beginning created god, with the heaven and with the earth"
There you go, Big Bang theory, in the bible.