1. IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, THE HISTORY OF CREATION AS GIVEN BY MOSES

GENESIS CHAPTER I

According to the versions of Schmidius and Castellio.

Verses [are in parentheses after the quote]

1. ¹ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

(1) Namely, in the beginning of time, when as yet there was no time.

And the earth was waste and void, (2) or, according to the interpretation of Castellio, was inert and unformed; that is, was an unordered mass, called by the Ancients, Chaos. ¹

And darkness was upon the faces of the abyss, or, as Castellio renders it, the deep was overspread with darkness.

The universe without atmospheres is not a universe but a void, an abyss, and a deep, where is mere darkness. For it is the atmospheres, and especially the ethereal atmospheres, that transmit the solar rays, that is, light; wherefore, without these atmospheres there is a vacuity, a void, or, nothing natural; and hence mere darkness.

And the spirit of God moved upon the faces of the waters, or, according to Castellio, moved to and fro over the waters.

By the Divine Spirit is meant the ether, as may be evident from numerous passages in the Sacred Scripture. ²

When these ethers had been produced, and were incumbent upon the earth, that is, upon its waters which they moved to and fro, or whose surface they reduced to a level by their pressure,

God said, Let there be light; and there was light, (3) or, as Castellio has it, and light existed.

By this is signified that although the sun existed as the first creation of all, yet it was without light, because without atmospheres, which are the supports and vehicles of its rays; but as soon as atmospheres surrounded the earth, which was at first purely aqueous, that is, was fluid consisting of the elements of inert nature, then it began to be illumined, or to be suffused with light.

And when God saw the light that it was good, God distinguished between the light and the darkness, or, He divided the light from, the darkness. (4)

This was done when the aqueous globe--now become a terraqueous globe, or an earth with its ether, or, now encompassed by the ethereal vortex--began to rotate on its axis; for then, as is well known, darkness and light succeeded each other. Wherefore, by this division of light from darkness, is signified that an axillary motion was impressed on the earth. (Concerning the days of creation, see The Word Explained 1445.)

And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. (5) Before darkness came into existence by means of the circumvolution of the globe, no light could be predicated of the latter; and before night, no day. For nothing is known and distinguished except from its opposites or contraries. For this reason day is said to come into existence only after darkness or night has first been induced, together with the distinctions of light and shade. It commences, therefore, from the darkness of the deep, and then from light.

But by Day here, and in the following verses of this chapter, is not meant one ordinary day, but the whole space of that time, or that whole time of creation during which the sun--the globe of the future earth--and also the ethereal atmospheres, came into existence. For in the Sacred Scriptures whole periods of time are frequently called a day, as will be seen even more clearly from what follows.

脚注:

1445. As to what is meant by nights in the Divine Word, and especially here in the lives of the patriarchs, see chapter 15:12. There it is said that terror and darkness fell upon Abraham in his sleep, as now it falls upon Jacob, on whom during the first night was the terror of anguish, that is to say, darkness. Seeing that "nights" are so often mentioned [in the Word] or "passing the night," the meaning shall now be told briefly.

In general, there is the great day extending from Adam, thus from the flood even to the end of days. This space of time, as said above [n. 1079], is divided into the six days of the new creation. These days or these years or times are again divided into so many lesser days, whether hours or months or weeks or still smaller parts of the same number. Each part, like the whole, commences from night and goes on to its dawn. Thus, the parts finish their day and come again to their night.

All these periods are images of the great day; and they all commence from evening and pass on to morning and so to day and again to evening; for there is no part which is not an image representative of the whole. It is for this reason then that there is such frequent mention of nights in which they passed the night. Thus, by application to the subject which is treated of at the time, this signifies the periods and the events through which these times likewise run, and this with indefinite variety. From the great day, it can be evident how the case is with the other days, to wit, that all things must begin from evening. The same is true of everything in nature, and consequently, of everything that concerns posterities both universal and more universal, and also particular; and this with indefinite variety; all which can be explained, granted only the subject treated of and the things which look to that subject.

So now in the church, which also has been a day of this kind. In the church, both in the common body and in its subdivided parts, the time of reformation begins likewise from night, just as it began from Adam in the time before the flood, and also from the flood itself. This time was the time of its night. It then progressed to its morning, namely, to the primitive church, this being the rising of the sun; and then to its day, namely, as all things became more clearly apparent before the entire world. This was done by means of the Divine Word, and of the worship of the Messiah instituted in the Jewish church and which extended throughout the entire globe. At midday came the Messiah himself, who enlightened the whole world. From that time, the church did indeed stand in the greatest light of day, yet, as the day grew, or as the sun began to sink, it gradually verged to its evening; the day also declined and the sun set. This is true of the church in general, and likewise of its every part, both great and small.

But it must be well observed that this day, both in its whole and in its part, proceeds in an entirely opposite way with those who ascend to the kingdom of God, than with those who depart from the kingdom of God and thus descend. With the latter, the state is entirely opposite. At the end of days, and also at the end of each specific time: or period, theirs is the night, while to the true church of the Messiah it is morning and the rising of the sun. For, in the church of the Messiah and in his kingdom, after the evening comes the morning or dawn without any night; thus the sun arises, which is perpetually in its rise and never verges to its setting. Such will be the kingdom of the Messiah, and when it comes, the sun is in its rising. But when the Messiah first came into the world, he was himself the morning.

From the above, the deduction can now be made that the church of Christ runs through these alternations of time, whether they be years or hours. But the case is different with those who are in the church of Christ [than with those who are outside it]. This church, both in the common body and in the part, will indeed run through the day and the changes thereof; and those who are in it will ever ascend; that is to say, with them the sun will be ever in its rise, nor ever will it verge to its setting. The contrary is the case with those who are outside the church and are in the opposite state. These will verge to their setting, and will go down into that night which in like manner will be a perpetual night. This, then, is what is signified by the two nights when mentioned in the lives of the patriarchs, and also in the present text, which treats of this second night when Jacob passed the night in the camp. These observations, however, are of a. very general nature.7

7 [By the author:] See whether these observations should be inserted here, and whether or not they will obscure the general sense of things.