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Genesis 12

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1 Now Jehovah said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee:

2 and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make they name great; and be thou a blessing;

3 and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

4 So Abram went, as Jehovah had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the oak of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.

7 And Jehovah appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto Jehovah, who appeared unto him.

8 And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Ai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto Jehovah, and called upon the name of Jehovah.

9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.

10 And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was sore in the land.

11 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:

12 and it will come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they will say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.

13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy sake, and that my soul may live because of thee.

14 And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.

15 And the princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

16 And he dealt well with Abram for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels.

17 And Jehovah plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

18 And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?

19 why saidst thou, She is my sister, so that I took her to be my wife? now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.

20 And Pharaoh gave men charge concerning him: and they brought him on the way, and his wife, and all that he had.

   

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Arcana Coelestia #1472

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1472. That 'it will be, when the Egyptians see you' means knowledge comprised of cognitions, it being the nature of that knowledge when celestial cognitions are seen that is described, becomes clear from the meaning of 'Egypt' as knowledge comprised of cognitions, as shown already. And from this what the words 'if the Egyptians see you' mean may become clear, namely that this knowledge is such as is described in the present verse. Such is the case with knowledge comprised of cognitions; and it has also a certain naturalness within it, as is manifested in children when they first start to learn - that is to say, the higher things are, the more they desire them; and all the more so when they hear that these things are celestial and Divine. But this delight is natural and arises from a strong desire that belongs to the external man. With others that strong desire causes them to take delight solely in knowledge comprised of cognitions, without any other end in view; yet that knowledge is nothing else than a certain means that exists to achieve an end, which is use. That is to say, cognitions exist to serve as vessels for celestial and spiritual things, and when they are performing that service, for the first time they have a use, and from that use receive their delight. It may become clear to anyone, if he pays the matter any attention, that in itself the knowledge comprised of cognitions exists for no other reason than that a person should become rational, and from that become spiritual, and at length celestial, and that by means of those cognitions his external man may be allied to his internal. When this point is reached he has arrived at the use itself, the internal man having nothing else than uses in view. For the sake of the same end also the Lord instills the delight that childhood and youth experience in forms of knowledge. When however a person begins to take delight in knowledge alone, it is a bodily desire that carries him away; and to the extent it carries him away, that is, to the extent he takes delight in knowledge alone, to the same extent does he move away from what is celestial, and to the same extent do the facts he knows close themselves up in the Lord's direction and become materially inclined. But insofar as facts are learned with a view to use - such as for the sake of human society, for the sake of the Lord's Church on earth, for the sake of the Lord's kingdom in heaven, and still more for the sake of the Lord Himself - the more they are opened out towards Him. For these reasons also the angels, who possess the knowledge that is comprised of all cognitions - having so full a possession of it that scarcely one ten thousandth part of what they know can be presented to man's entire mental grasp - nevertheless place no value at all in knowledge when compared with use. These considerations show what is meant by the words, 'when the Egyptians see you they will say, This is his wife, and they will slay me and let you live'. It is because the Lord when He was a boy knew this and thought in this way, that these things have been stated, namely that if He were to be carried away by a strong desire for nothing else than the knowledge that is comprised of cognitions, this knowledge would be such that He would have no interest any more in celestial things but only in the cognitions which that strong desire for knowledge would seize upon. More regarding these matters follows below.

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