16. Verse 1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The most ancient times of all are called 'the beginning', and are throughout the Prophets referred to as 'days of antiquity' and also 'days of eternity'. 'The beginning' also embodies within it that first Period when a person is being regenerated, for at that time he is being born anew and receiving life. Regeneration itself is therefore called a new creation of man. Almost everywhere in the prophetical sections 'to create', 'to form', and 'to make' mean to regenerate, though each of these verbs has a different shade of meaning, as in Isaiah,

Every one who is called by My name - I have created him for My glory, I have formed him, I have also made him. Isaiah 43:7

This is why the Lord is called Redeemer, One who forms from the womb, Maker, and also Creator, as in the same prophet,

I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. Isaiah 43:15.

In David,

A people to be created will praise Jah. Psalms 102:18.

In the same author,

You send forth Your Spirit; they are created; and You renewest the face ¹ of the ground. Psalms 104:30.

'Heaven' means the internal man, and 'earth' the external man prior to regeneration. This will be seen further on.

Footnotes:

2173. That 'Sarah' here is the Lord as regards truth is clear from the representation of 'Sarah' as intellectual truth allied to good, and here as rational truth, for the same reason as has just been stated in reference to 'Abraham'; for 'Sarah' represents truth, see what has been stated already in 1468, 1901, 2063, 2065. In the historical sections of the Word good and truth cannot be represented by anything other than a marriage, for they go together as two that are married. Indeed a Divine Marriage exists between celestial and spiritual things, or what amounts to the same, between the things of love and those of faith; or what still amounts to the same, between things of the will and those of the understanding. Those of the will are forms of good, those of the understanding forms of truth. Such a marriage exists in the Lord's kingdom in heaven, and such also exists in the Lord's kingdom on earth, which is the Church. Such a marriage exists in every individual, and in each part of him, indeed in the most individual parts of all. That which does not have its existence within such a marriage has no life. Indeed from this Divine Marriage such a marriage exists in the entire natural order and in each individual part of it - though it does so under a different shape and form - otherwise nothing would ever continue to exist there. Because such a marriage exists in each individual part, everything is described in the Prophets, especially in Isaiah, by a pair of expressions. The one expression has to do with that which is celestial or with good, the other with that which is spiritual or with truth, dealt with in 683, 793, 801. As regards the likeness of a marriage being present in every individual part, see 718, 747, 917, 1432. This explains why 'Abraham' represents the Lord's good, and 'Sarah' His truth.