became celestial men, and constituted the Most Ancient Church; afterwards of those who fell away, and their descendants, in regular order through the first, second, and third posterities and their successors, down to the flood. In the verses following, which conclude the chapter, we have a recapitulation of what occurred from the period when the man of the Most Ancient Church was formed, until the flood; thus it is a conclusion to all that goes before.
287. Verse 20. And the man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. By the "man (homo)" is here meant the man of the Most Ancient Church, or the celestial man, and by the "wife" and the "mother of all living" is meant the church. She is called "mother," as being the first church; and "living," in consequence of possessing faith in the Lord, who is life itself.
288. That by "man" is meant the man of the Most Ancient Church, or the celestial man, was previously shown; and at the same time it was also shown that the Lord alone is Man, and that from Him every celestial man is man, because in His likeness. Hence every member of the church, without exception or distinction, was called a "man," and at length this name was applied to any one who in body appeared as a man, to distinguish him from beasts.
289. It has also been shown above that by "wife" is meant the church, and in the universal sense the kingdom of the Lord in the heavens and on earth; and from this it follows that the same is meant by "mother." In the Word the church is very frequently called "mother," as in Isaiah:—
Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement? (l. 1).
In Jeremiah:—
Your mother is greatly ashamed: she that bare you was suffused with shame (l. 12).
In Ezekiel:—
Thou art thy mother's daughter that loathed her man and her sons; your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite (xvi. 45),
where "man (vir)" denotes the Lord and all that is celestial; "sons," the truths of faith; a "Hittite," what is false: and an " Amorite," what is evil. In the same—
