The Bible

 

Genesis 1:2

Study

       

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

 

Look

  

'Look not back behind thee,' as in Genesis 19:17, means that Lot, who represents the good of charity, should not look to matters of doctrine. 'To look up,' is to look to celestial things. In Genesis 18:22, looking signifies thinking because seeing denotes understanding.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 2245)


Commentary

 

Fruit

  
Apples at the farm market

We tend to think of "fruit" in two ways in natural language. One is as food that grows on trees and vines, sweet and delicious, and able to be eaten without harming the plant in any way. Another is as the things we produce, what our work yields for the betterment of the world. These are obviously connected: we are like trees, producing things that "feed" the world in some way, just as the tree produces fruit that feeds us. It makes sense, then, that the idea of fruit in the Bible is bound closely to the idea of goodness. Fruits that are eaten represent the desire for good and the energy to do what is good; fruit that is produced is the actual good that we go into the world and do.