The Bible

 

Genesis 1:2

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2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Commentary

 

Evening

  
Evening Street, by Jakub Schikaneder

Evening, a time when the light and heat are fading away, represents a state in which a person -- or a community of people -- is turning away from the Lord, with little desire left to be good and little knowledge left regarding what good is. Evening is often a time of judgment.

In Genesis 19:1, the evening signifies the visitation that comes before judgment. (Arcana Coelestia 2318)

In Genesis 30:16, this signifies the good or truth in a state of good, but in the obscurity that is characteristic of the natural. (Arcana Coelestia 3949)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) #22

  
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22. Moreover, it will be proved in its own article in what follows, that the passion of the Lord's cross was not Redemption, but the means of the inmost union with the Divine of the Father, from which He came forth and into which He returned. In the work, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION (n. 132, 133), of which this volume is the Appendix, I set out to show that the passion of the Cross being believed to have been Redemption itself, is a fundamental error of the present Christian Church; and that this error, together with the error concerning three Divine Persons from eternity, has perverted the whole Church to such an extent that not a vestige of spirituality remains in it. This will also be further shown in the following pages; and, that these two falsities and delusions have been comparatively like mating butterflies flying about in a garden, which produce the eggs whence are hatched the caterpillars which entirely consume the opening leaves of the trees therein; and further, that they have been like the quails from the sea sent down upon the camp of the Israelites, owing to which, while they were eating, a great plague fell upon the people; and this because they loathed and spurned the manna from heaven, by which, in the highest sense, is meant the Lord (Num. 11:5-6, 32-35; and John 6:31-32, 49-51, 58). And, further, these two errors have been like two drops of black paint, or shoemaker's blacking, dropped into generous wine, and shaken about in the wine-glass; in consequence of which all the brightness, delightful fragrance and fine flavour of the wine are changed into blackness, stench and nauseousness.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.