What does the article signify in the Greek translation of Genesis 1:1?

Question

The beginning of the Bible states:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 ESV)
בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ

In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. (LXX-Genesis 1:1)
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν

Wouldn't this translation say the same thing?

In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν

What does the translator convey by translating אֱלֹהִים as ὁ θεὸς rather than θεὸς?

Answer 1

θεὸς vs ὁ θεὸς: not so easy …

Someone here has already tried to dismiss the Question, wondering if the questioner is fully familiar with Greek.

I will spare you all my immediate reaction, when I read the comment.

Perhaps it is more useful to say that, if a Google search with the string "ὁ θεὸς" "θεὸς" "article" site:hermeneutics.stackexchange.com returns 237 hits (!!!), the question is not easy, and has never been satisfactorily answered, here at Biblical Hermeneutics.

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My simple answer is this: the Greek determinative article ὁ, ἡ, τό, very much like the (genderless) English determinative article "the", in front of a noun, means "this one here", either expressly indicated, or obvious in context. In the case of God, ὁ θεὸς (rather than the anarthrous θεὸς) normally translates the Hebrew אֱלֹהִ֑ים (plural of אֱלוֹהַּ), when it refers to the One and Only God.

But ὁ θεὸς, when qualified, can (and does) in the NT refer to even to Jesus (John 20:28) and even to ... Satan, ο θεος του αιωνος τουτου ("the god of this age" - 2 Cor 4:4)

Answer 2

ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν

In the beginning, a god made the heaven and the earth.

ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν

In the beginning, the god made the heaven and the earth.
In the beginning, God made the heaven and the earth.

What does the article signify in the Greek translation of Genesis 1:1?

It signifies a definite god, not just any god.

Answer 3

Waltke & O'Connor Biblical Hebrew page 240 says Elohim is a unique appellative that is "inherently definite." Terms like these are used "more or less as names."

And,

"The anarthrous form is more common in the Pentateuch."

The word is a plural form with a singular verb and as such cannot be confused with a numeric plural.

Greek has no way of duplicating this identification and is naturally articular, especially for a nominative subject.

The ο θεός is also semantically a convertible proposition that unpacks to "He being God" or "ο ων θεός."

Thus the author assumes the existence of God and does not merely assert it.

That being said, this is translation Greek. I would not make any comparisons to native idiomatic Greek.