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.

Fusnotat:

5292. 'In the seven years of abundance of corn means which are instilled during the times when truths along with forms of good have been multiplied. This is clear from the meaning of 'years' as states, and from these as periods of time, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'abundance of corn' as the multiplication of truth, or truth that has been multiplied, dealt with above in 5276, 5278, 5280. Here therefore truths which, along with forms of good, have been multiplied are meant because truths are nothing unless they are accompanied by forms of good; nor are any truths stored away within the interior man - dealt with immediately above in 5291 - other than those which have been joined to forms of good. The reason 'years' means not only states but also periods of time is that in the internal sense 'years' means entire states, that is, periods in their entirety from the start to the finish of a state. No expression other than periods of time exists to describe such states; nor have the inhabitants of [space and] time any other way of understanding them than as periods of time. For 'days' and 'years mean both states and periods of time, see 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2906.