"Create": the verb that makes a people בָּרָא
Before we ask what Genesis 1:1 means, let's ask a smaller question. One you can check for yourself. When the rest of the Bible says "create," what is it talking about?
Look at what Isaiah just did. First he says God will create new heavens and a new earth. Then he tells us what he means: God will create Jerusalem, and her people. He is not talking about replacing the sky. He is talking about God making his people new.
And that's not a one-time thing. Earlier in the same book, God says he "created" Jacob and "formed" Israel (Isaiah 43:1). But think about that. Jacob's family had been around for hundreds of years by then. So "created" can't mean "built from scratch" here. It means God formed a people and made them his own — "every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory" (Isaiah 43:7). Malachi says it too: "hath not one God created us?" — and he's talking to Israel, God's covenant people (Malachi 2:10).
So here is the small claim of this page. In the Bible, "create" does not have to mean making things out of nothing. Very often, it means God forming a people who belong to him. Does Genesis 1 use the word that way too? We're not there yet. That's what the next two steps are for.
Don't take our word for it. Open the bara branch and see the leaves for yourself — every kind of thing Scripture says God "creates." Including the verses that don't fit our pattern neatly. Those stay on the tree too.
Open the bara tree →What this page proves — and what it doesn't. It proves "create" doesn't have to mean making the physical world. It does not prove Genesis 1 is about the covenant. That case needs more evidence. Keep going.