Bible

 

Genesis 8

Studie

   

1 And God remembered Noaḥ, and every wild·​·animal, and every beast that was with him in the ark; and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.

2 And the fountains of the abyss, and the floodgates of the heavens were shut·​·up, and the shower from the heavens was held·​·back.

3 And the waters returned from on the earth, going and returning; and from the end of fifty and a hundred days the waters decreased.

4 And the ark rested* in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.

5 And the waters were going and decreasing until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the heads of the mountains were seen.

6 And it was, at the end of forty days, that Noaḥ opened the window of the ark which he had made;

7 and he sent·​·out a raven, and it went·​·out, going·​·out and returning, until the waters were dried·​·up from on the earth.

8 And he sent·​·out the dove from him, to see if the waters were diminished* from upon the faces of the ground.

9 And the dove found not rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were on the faces of all the land; and he put·​·forth his hand and took her, and brought· her ·in to him into the ark.

10 And he waited* still another seven days; and again he sent out the dove from the ark;

11 and the dove came to him at evening time; and behold in her mouth was an olive leaf torn·​·off; and Noaḥ knew that the waters were diminished from on the earth.

12 And he waited·​·with·​·hope yet another seven days, and sent the dove, and she returned not again to to him any·​·more.

13 And it was, in the six hundred and first year, in the beginning, on the first of the month, that the waters were dried·​·up from on the earth; and Noaḥ removed the covering of the ark, and saw, and behold, the faces of the ground were·​·dry.

14 In the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried·​·up.

15 And God spoke to Noaḥ, saying,

16 Go·​·out from the ark, thou and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

17 Every wild·​·animal that is with thee of all flesh, as·​·to fowl, and as·​·to beast, and as·​·to every creeping thing that creeps on the land, bring·​·out with thee; and they will crawl forth into the land, and be·​·fruitful, and multiply on the land.

18 And Noaḥ went·​·out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him.

19 Every wild·​·animal, every creeping thing, and every fowl, all that creeps upon the earth, according·​·to their families, went·​·out from the ark.

20 And Noaḥ built an altar to Jehovah; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered·​·up burnt·​·offerings on the altar.

21 And Jehovah smelled a restful smell; and Jehovah said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any·​·more on account of man; for what the heart of man forms is evil from his youth; and I will not add to smite any·​·more all that is living, as I have done.

22 As·​·long·​·as all the days of the earth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.

   


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

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Arcana Coelestia # 920

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 10837  
  

920. In this verse the worship of the Ancient Church in general is described, that is, by 'the altar and its burnt offerings', which were the chief features of all representative worship. First of all however the nature of the worship of the Most Ancient Church must be mentioned, and from that how worship of the Lord by means of representatives arose. For the member of the Most Ancient Church there was no other worship than internal such as is offered in heaven, for among those people heaven so communicated with man that they made one. That communication was perception, which has been frequently spoken of already. Thus, being angelic people, they were internal men. They did indeed apprehend with their senses the external things that belonged to the body and to the world, but they paid no attention to them. In each object apprehended by the senses they used to perceive something Divine and heavenly. For example, when they saw any high mountain they did not perceive the idea of a mountain but that of height, and from height they perceived heaven and the Lord. That is how it came about that the Lord was said to 'live in the highest', and was called 'the Most High and Lofty One', and how worship of the Lord came at a later time to be celebrated on mountains. The same applies to all other objects. For example, when they perceived the morning they did not perceive morning time itself that starts the day but that which is heavenly and is a likeness of the morning and of the dawn in people's minds. This was why the Lord was called the Morning, the East, and the Dawn. Similarly when they perceived a tree and its fruit and leaves they paid no attention to these objects themselves but so to speak saw man represented in them. In the fruit they saw love and charity, and in the leaves faith. Consequently the member of the Church was not only compared to a tree, and also to a tree-garden, and what resided with him to fruit and leaves, but was even called such.

[2] Such is the character of people whose ideas are heavenly and angelic. Everyone may know that a general idea governs all the particular aspects, and this applies to all objects apprehended by the senses, both those which people see and those they hear. Indeed they pay no attention to such objects except insofar as these enter into the general idea a person has. Take the person who has a cheerful disposition; everything he hears and sees seems to him to contain joy and laughter. But for one who has a sad disposition everything he sees and hears seems to be sad and dismal. The same applies to every other kind of person, for their general affection is present within each individual part and causes each individual part to be seen and heard in the general affection. Other features do not even show themselves but are so to speak absent or insignificant. This was so with the member of the Most Ancient Church. Whatever he saw with his eyes was for him heavenly, and so with him every single thing was so to speak alive.

[3] From this the nature of that Church's Divine worship becomes clear, namely that it was internal and not at all external. When however the Church went into decline, as it did among its descendants, and that perception, or communication with heaven, began to die out, a different situation started to emerge. In objects apprehended by the senses they no longer perceived, as they had done previously, that which is heavenly, but that which is worldly. And the more they perceived that which is worldly the less perception remained with them. At length among their final descendants, who came immediately before the Flood, they apprehended nothing at all in such objects except that which was worldly, bodily, and earthly. Thus heaven became separated from mankind and communicated with it in none but an extremely remote way. Man's communication now changed to a communication with hell, and from there he obtained his general idea from which, as has been stated, stem the ideas belonging to every individual part. In this situation, when any heavenly idea came to them, it had no value for them. At length they were not even willing to acknowledge the existence of anything spiritual or celestial. Thus man's state came to be altered and turned upside down.

[4] Because the Lord foresaw that the state of mankind was to become such as this, He also provided for the preservation of doctrinal matters concerning faith so that from them people might know what was celestial and what was spiritual. These matters of doctrine were gathered together from the members of the Most Ancient Church by the people dealt with already called Cain and those called Enoch. This is why it is said of Cain that a sign was placed upon him to prevent anyone killing him, and of Enoch that he was taken by God. Concerning these two, see Chapter 4:15 - in 393, 394 - and Genesis 5:24. These matters of doctrine consisted exclusively in things that were meaningful signs and so things of a seemingly enigmatic nature. That is to say, they consisted in earthly objects which carried spiritual meanings, such as mountains, which meant heavenly things and the Lord; the morning and the east, which also meant heavenly things and the Lord; various kinds of trees and their fruits, which meant man and the heavenly things that are his; and so on. These were the things that their matters of doctrine consisted in, which had been gathered together from the meaningful signs of the Most Ancient Church. Their writings too were consequently of this nature. Now because they wondered at, and to themselves seemed to detect, that which was Divine and heavenly in such matters of doctrine, and also because of the antiquity of these, they began and were allowed to make such things the basis of their worship. This was the origin of their worship on mountains, in groves, and among trees, also of their pillars in the open air, and later on of altars and burnt offerings which ended up as the chief features of all worship. Such worship was begun by the Ancient Church, and from there spread to their descendants and to all the nations round about. These and many other matters as well will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with later on.

  
/ 10837  
  

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