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Genesis 1:23

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23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

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Midst

  

The "midst" of something in the Bible represents the thing that is most central and most important to the spiritual state being described, the motivation that drives everything else. In general this will be something we love or feel, because at the core of things we are what we love; our loves define us.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Revealed 44, 90, 268; Arcana Coelestia 2252, 2940, 10153, 10365, 10557, 10635, 10641)

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The White Horse # 6

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6. The Word and its Spiritual or Internal Sense from the Arcana Caelestia. 1

The necessity for, and the excellence of, the Word. In the dim light 2 of the natural order of things nothing may be known about the Lord, or about heaven and hell, or about the life of a person after death, or about the divine truths through which a person has spiritual and eternal life; see 8944, 10318-10320. This may be agreed from the fact that many men, and scholars among them, do not believe these things, even though they are born where the Word is, and through it are instructed about these things: 10319. It was necessary therefore for there to be some revelation from heaven, because the human race was born for heaven: 1775. There has therefore been a revelation in every age: 2895, and there have been various types of revelation on this earth, one after another: 10355, 10632. There was instant revelation for the most ancient peoples, who lived before the Flood, whose era was called the Golden Age, and therefore divine truth was inscribed upon their hearts: 2896. The Word was historical and prophetical for the ancient churches 3 who came after the Flood: 2686, 2897. Details concerning these churches may be seen in The New Jerusalem and Its [Heavenly] Doctrine 247. The historical parts of the Word were called 'The Wars of Jehovah', and the prophetical parts 'The Pronouncements': 2897. That Word was similar to our Word as regards inspiration, but adapted for those churches: 2897. It was mentioned by Moses: 2686, 2897. But that Word was completely lost: 2897. There were also prophetical revelations amongst other peoples, as appears from the prophecies of Balaam: 2898. The Word is divine in all its single parts; see 639, 680, 10321, 10637. The Word is divine and holy down to the last jot and tittle, 4 as has been demonstrated to me by an experience 5 : 1870. How it is explained today that the Word is inspired down to the last jot: 1886.

The Church exists in particular where the Word is, and through it the Lord is known, and the divine truths revealed: 3857, 10761. But indeed those who are born where the Word is, and where through the Word the Lord is known, are not simply by that very reason of the Church: those people are of the Church who are given rebirth by the Lord through the truths from the Word, who live according to the truths there, so, those who live a life of love and faith: 6637, 10143, 10153, 10578, 10645, 10829.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1. The vast majority of Swedenborg's posits in this section are introduced with the Latin conjunction quod; I have dispensed with the equivalent English that in each case in order to ease fluent reading.

2. Swedenborg uses lumine (from lumen) for 'light' here. The Rev'd. John Elliott helpfully points out that Swedenborg tends to use lumen when referring to light of inferior quality, reserving lux for light which is divinely inspired.

3. De Nova Hierosolyma (NH) has in antiquis...; De Equo Albo has no in, and I have translated it as a dative case 'for."

4. The Rev'd. John Elliott points out that 'tittle' does not appear in the modern English version of the New Testament, and suggests replacing it with 'small part;' but 'tittle' is such a lovely little word, and besides has for me strong redolences of biblical readings ringing in my childhood ears, that I have decided to keep it. Tittle is in fact the mark or dot over the letter i, i.e., jot.

5. I am grateful for the Revd John Elliott's advice that 'Swedenborg is using ab experientia here [and elsewhere] to mean an experience that he had in the spiritual world and that he recounts in Arcana Caelestia 1870.

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