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Genesis 1

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

2 And the earth was a void and emptiness, and darkness was on the faces* of the abyss. And the Spirit of God brooded* upon the faces of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God distinguished between the light and the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning, the first Day.

6 And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let there be a distinguishing between waters as·​·to the waters.

7 And God made the expanse, and distinguished between the waters which were from under the expanse and the waters which were from upon the expanse; and it was so.

8 And God called the expanse Heavens. And there was evening, and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered·​·together to one place, and let what is dry appear; and it was so.

10 And what was dry, God called Land, and the gathering·​·together of the waters He called Seas; and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the land cause the sprout to sprout·​·forth, the herb seeding seed, and the fruit tree making fruit according·​·to its kind, in which is its seed, upon the land; and it was so.

12 And the land brought·​·forth the sprout, the herb seeding seed after its kind, and the tree making fruit, whose seed was in itself, after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

13 And there was evening, and there was morning, the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be* lights in the expanse of the heavens, to distinguish between the day and the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years.

15 And let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give·​·light on the earth; and it was so.

16 And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars.

17 And God put them in the expanse of the heavens, to give·​·light on the earth;

18 and to rule in the day, and in the night, and to distinguish between the light and the darkness; and God saw that it was good.

19 And there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters cause the crawling thing*, the living soul, to crawl; and let the fowl fly above the earth on the faces of the expanse of the heavens.

21 And God created the great whales, and every living soul that creeps, which the waters caused to crawl after their kinds, and every winged fowl after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be·​·fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and the fowl shall be multiplied in the earth.

23 And there was evening, and there was morning, the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the land bring·​·forth the living soul after its kind; the beast, and the creeping thing, and the wild·​·animal of the land, after its kind; and it was so.

25 And God made the wild·​·animal of the land after its kind, and the beast after its kind, and every creeping thing on the ground* after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, according·​·to our likeness; and let them have·​·dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the beast, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be·​·fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue her; and have·​·dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over every living·​·thing that creeps on the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I give to you every herb seeding seed which is on the faces of all the earth, and every tree in which is fruit; the tree seeding seed, to you it shall be for food;

30 and to every wild·​·animal of the land, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth in which is a living soul, every green herb shall be for food; and it was so.

31 And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Arcana Coelestia # 30

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30. Verses 14-17 And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens, to make a distinction between the day and the night; and they will be for signs, and for set times, and for days and years. And they will be for lights in the expanse of the heavens, to give light upon the earth; and it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to have dominion over the day, and the lesser light to have dominion over the night; and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.

No one can have an adequate understanding of what 'the great lights' are unless he knows what the underlying essence of faith is and how it develops in people who are being created anew. The very essence and life of faith is the Lord alone. In fact it is impossible for anyone who does not believe in the Lord to have life, as He Himself has said in John,

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God will rest upon him. John 3:36.

[2] With people who are being created anew faith develops as follows: First of all they have no life, for life does not exist in anything evil and false but in what is good and true. Then they start to receive life from the Lord by means of faith - first by faith existing in the memory, which is factual faith, then by faith existing in the understanding, which is conceptual faith, and after this by faith existing in the heart, which is loving or saving faith. Factual faith and conceptual faith are represented in verses 3-13 by the inanimate, but faith made alive by means of love is represented in verses 20-25 by the animate. Consequently this is the first point at which love and faith deriving from it, which are called 'lights', are dealt with. Love is 'the greater light which has dominion over the day', and faith deriving from love is 'the lesser light which has dominion over the night'. And because they ought to make one the verb in the phrase 'let there be lights 'is singular and not plural.

[3] Love and faith have their place in the internal man as warmth and light do in the external, bodily man, and for this reason love and faith are represented by warmth and light. Therefore it is said that 'the lights' were set in the expanse of the heavens, that is, in the internal man - the greater light in his will and the lesser in his understanding. Yet they make their appearances in the will and understanding only as sunlight does in the objects it strikes. To the Lord alone belongs the mercy which moves the will with love and the understanding with truth or faith.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.