1. In §§833-836 Swedenborg lists four states depicted in Genesis 8. This is the first of three interconnected numbering systems he uses for the states portrayed in this chapter. The second numbering system initially comes up in the next section, §834, and the third in §§835-836. The first system, with its four elements, covers states that Swedenborg defines as those coming after times of trial. The second system, containing three elements, appears to cover the states of a person who is in the process of being reborn. The third system, containing two elements, appears to cover the states of a person who has achieved rebirth. For more about the states covered by the second numbering system, see §§869-892, especially §§880:1, 890, and note 1 in §871. When Swedenborg reaches the explanation of the verses involved in the third numbering system (Genesis 8:15-21, §§903-929), he ceases to number the states at all. [LHC]

1. "Because of its mild and peaceful habits, its attachment to its mate, even its color and its song, the dove, from the beginning of ancient humanity's use of symbols, has been taken as the ideogram of peace, purity, simplicity, patience in suffering, and conjugal fidelity" (Charbonneau-Lassay 1991, 229 and following). As a symbol of peace, it is linked to the olive branch that it carries in the story of the Flood. In the New Testament, it is a symbol of the Holy Spirit: see Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; and John 1:32-34. For Swedenborg's interpretation of the dove in these passages, see §870:1. [RS]