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Joshua 3

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1 And Joshua got·​·up·​·early in the morning and they journeyed from Shittim, and came to the Jordan, he and all the sons of Israel, and passed·​·the·​·night there before they crossed·​·over.

2 And it was, at the end of three days, that the officers passed·​·through among the camp;

3 and they commanded the people, saying, As you are seeing the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall journey from your place, and go after it.

4 Only it shall be far between you and it about two·​·thousand cubits by measure; come· not ·near to it, so·​·that you may know the way by which you must go; for you have not crossed·​·over by this way from yesterday and the day before*.

5 And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow Jehovah will do wonders among you.

6 And Joshua said to the priests, saying, Bear the ark of the covenant, and cross·​·over before the people. And they bore the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.

7 And Jehovah said to Joshua, This day I will begin to magnify thee in the eyes of all Israel, that they may·​·know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.

8 And thou shalt command the priests bearing the ark of the covenant, saying, As you have come even·​·to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan.

9 And Joshua said to the sons of Israel, Approach now, and hear the words of Jehovah your God.

10 And Joshua said, By this you shall know that a living God is among you; and dispossessing you shall dispossess from before you the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Hivite, and the Perizzite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite and the Jebusite.

11 Behold the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth crosses·​·over before you into the Jordan.

12 And now, take for yourselves twelve men out·​·of the tribes of Israel; one man, one man for each tribe.

13 And it shall be, as the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut·​·off, the waters that come·​·down from above; and they shall stand as one heap.

14 And it was, when the people journeyed from their tents to cross·​·over the Jordan, and the priests were bearing the ark of the covenant before the people,

15 and as those bearing the ark had come even·​·to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the waters (and the Jordan fills all its banks all the days of the harvest),

16 that the waters coming·​·down from above stood; they rose·​·up in one heap, exceedingly far·​·away from Adam, the city that is by the side of Zarethan, and the waters coming·​·down upon the sea of the desert, the Salt sea, were finished, they were cut·​·off; and the people crossed·​·over in·​·front·​·of Jericho.

17 And the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of Jehovah stood firm on the dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed·​·over on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing·​·over the Jordan.

   


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

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Adam

  
The Creation of Adam, by Jan Breughel (II)

In a general sense, then, Adam represents the Most Ancient Church. In specific, when named as an individual, he represents that church as it first began turning away from the Lord. In both senses, though, his story is spiritual history, not natural history. Adam is a figurative character, not an actual individual human being.

The word "adam" is Hebrew for "man" or "humankind," and it is consistently translated that way in the first chapter of Genesis. In fact, in that chapter "adam" is plural, and includes men and women: "So God created man (adam) in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Genesis 1:27, quoted from the King James Version of the Bible). Yet in later chapters – even including the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:38 – "Adam" is used as a name, and seems to refer to a specific person.

The first ripple in the relationship between God and humanity came as people began wanting a greater sense of life as their own, as they began to want to feel their love and wisdom as their own instead of things flowing in from God. The Lord gave them the power to feel as they wanted to, which is represented by the rib taken from the "man" Adam and formed into the "woman" Eve. This would, of course, lead to the downfall of humanity; because of that sense of self, people were drawn to the power of their own senses and their own minds – the serpent – instead of trusting the Lord. The Writings say the switch from "man" to "Adam" represents the change made in people when the Lord allowed them to have that sense of self. So what does this mean? The Writings tell us that the "man" created in Genesis represents the Most Ancient Church, which was the first church among early humans and was the purest ever to grace the earth. People of the church were motivated purely by the love of the Lord, and lived in peace, harmony, mutual love and inexpressible wisdom. This follows from the idea that the Lord is the one true human – and is, in fact, humanity itself. Since the Most Ancients were so close to the Lord, they are represented by "adam" in its meaning of "man" or "humankind." The common interpretation is that Genesis 1:26-28 is a general statement of the creation of people, and that the specifics of that creation are laid out in the next chapter when God first creates the man Adam and the woman Eve. But linguistically "adam" in the second chapter is the same as "adam" in the first chapter. In fact, while the King James Version of the Bible switches from "man" to "Adam" midway through the second chapter (Genesis 2:19), Young's Literal Translation – created to be as close to the original language as possible – does not use "Adam" as a named person until Genesis 4:25, long after the Garden of Eden. Eve, meanwhile, is simply "the woman" in all translations until Genesis 3:20, which is after she and Adam have eaten the forbidden fruit and been expelled from the Garden. Adam is one of the most crucial and most controversial figures in the Bible, dividing even the faithful into camps: those who believe he literally existed, created by God as the first human; and those who believe he is a figurative character, embodying spiritual and moral lessons but not an actual person.

In Genesis 2:19, Also that man was made from the ground, or from the non-man, by regeneration. (Arcana Coelestia 478, Arcana Coelestia 64, 313)

In Genesis 3:17, Adam's expulsion from Eden signifies the condemnation of those called Adam and Eve, the former of their intellectual part, the latter of their voluntary or will: in short of both degrees of their selfhood or proprium. Proprium is defined as "the love of self, and the derivative conceit of self-intelligence." (Doctrine Regarding Sacred Scripture 60, Divine Providence 313)