Sforno on Genesis 1:1/ספורנו על בראשית א׳:א׳

1בראשית, at the beginning of time; this is the first moment which is indivisible into shorter periods. There had not been a concept “time” previous to this, i.e. there had only been unbroken continuity. [The author perceives “time” as one of the creations. Ed.]

2ברא, He had converted “nothing” into “something.” There had been no need to invoke “time” in order to accomplish this.

3אלוקים, The expression “elo-ha” refers to something enduring, eternal. This is why Moses (Deut. 32,17) refers to demons, שדים, as לא אלו-ה, seeing that they are not eternal, are subject to death as our sages taught (Chagigah 16) The reason that the term “elo-ha” here appears in the plural mode, i.e. “elo-him,” is to teach us that G’d is the origin of all the various visible and invisible manifestations in the universe. This is what the prophet (Isaiah 6,3) has in mind when he described G’d as מלא כל הארץ כבודו, “the entire globe is a manifestation of His glory.” There is no other existence unless it has emanated from His existence. This is what Nechemyah 9,6 had in mind when he said ואתה מחיה את כלם, “You provide life for all of them.” When speaking of “appearances,” every phenomenon which is abstract as distinct from being tangible, is described by the generic term אלוקים. Professional, i.e. expert judges are called אלוהים, as they are able to pronounce judgment בצלם אלוקים, reflecting Divine wisdom. Their very profession is testimony to something enduring, divine in nature.

4את השמים, the word שם refers to a place which is distant, as opposed to the word פה, which means “here.” Every plural mode when accompanied by an accented penultimate syllable vocalised with a patach signals 2 of something which are equi-distant from all sides. This is something possible only in connection with an orbiting planet. This is something which is not possible, i.e that two points are equidistant from the center unless they are part of an orbiting spherical planet. The Torah therefore says that G’d created the phenomenon which at this time is far distant from us in such a way that all its sides are equi-distant from us, in other words the phenomenon is a planet, something spherical.

5ואת הארץ, and the center which is orbited by the planet.