The Bible

 

Genesis 1:28

Study

       

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Commentary

 

Heaven and earth

  

'Heaven and earth' signify all the inner parts of the church, and 'sea and dry land' signify all its outer parts, as mentioned in Haggai 2:6. 'Heaven and earth' signify, in general, the internal and external church. In particular, they signify the internal and external, or the spiritual and the natural parts of a person.

In Psalm 89:13, they signify the higher and lower heavens, and also the internal and external church.

'Heaven and earth being finished, and all the host of them,' as mentioned in Genesis 2:1, signifies that mankind had been made spiritual.

'In heaven, on earth, and under the earth,' as mentioned in Revelation 5:3, signify the three heavens in orderly succession, from the highest to the lowest.

'Heaven and earth' in scripture signify the heaven and earth which angels and spirits inhabit. In a spiritual sense, they signify the church amongst men.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 751; Arcana Coelestia 82; Haggai 2)


Commentary

 

Spirit of God

  

'The spirit of God,' as in Genesis 1:2, signifies the divine mercy of the Lord.

'The spirit of God' denotes good from an interior level, so from the divine. The spirit of God is what proceeds from the divine, so from good itself, because the divine is good itself, and what proceeds from it is truth within which is good. This is what 'the spirit of God' signifies in the Word, because the spirit itself does not proceed, but the truth itself within which is good, the spirit being the instrument which produces it.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 19; Divine Love and Wisdom 100)