Die Bibel

 

Genesis 1

Lernen

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

2 And the earth was waste and empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face 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 divided 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 it be a division between waters and waters.

7 And God made the expanse, and divided between the waters that are under the expanse and the waters that are above the expanse; and it was so.

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

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together to one place, and let the dry [land] appear. And it was so.

10 And God called the dry [land] Earth, and the gathering together of the waters he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth cause grass to spring up, herb producing seed, fruit-trees yielding fruit after their kind, the seed of which is in them, on the earth. And it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, herb producing seed after its kind, and trees yielding fruit, the seed of which is in them, after their kind. And God saw that it was good.

13 And there was evening, and there was morning -- a third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens, to divide between the day and the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and 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 great light to rule the day, and the small light to rule the night, -- and the stars.

17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens, to give light on the earth,

18 and to rule during the day and during the night, and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

19 And there was evening, and there was morning -- a fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living souls, and let fowl fly above the earth in the expanse of the heavens.

21 And God created the great sea monsters, and every living soul that moves with which the waters swarm, after their kind, 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 let fowl multiply on the earth.

23 And there was evening, and there was morning -- a fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth living souls after their kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth, after their kind. And it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the ground after its kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over the whole earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth.

27 And God created Man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over every animal that moveth on the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb producing seed that is on the whole earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree producing seed: it shall be food for you;

30 and to every animal of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth on the earth, in which is a living soul, every green herb 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.

Aus Swedenborgs Werken

 

Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) #23

  
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23. PROPOSITION THE SECOND

The Adamic, or Most Ancient Church of this Earth

The world has hitherto believed that by "the creation of heaven and earth," in the first chapter of Genesis, is meant the creation of the universe, according to the letter; and by Adam, the first man of this globe. Seeing that the spiritual or internal sense of the Word has not been disclosed till now, the world could not believe otherwise; nor, consequently, that by "creating heaven and earth" is meant to collect and found an angelic heaven from those who have finished with life in the world, and by this means to derive and produce a Church on earth (as above, n. 18-20); and that by the names of persons, nations, territories and cities, are meant such things as are of heaven, and at the same time of the Church: in like manner, therefore, by "Adam." That by "Adam," and by all those things which are related of him and his posterity in the first chapters of Genesis, are described the successive states of the Most Ancient Church-which are: its rise, or morning, its progression into light, or day; its decline, or evening; its end, or night; and after this the Last Judgment upon those composing it, and thereafter a new angelic heaven from the faithful, and a new hell from the unfaithful, according to the series of the progressions laid down in the preceding Proposition-has been explained, unfolded and demonstrated in detail in the ARCANA CAELESTIA on Genesis and Exodus, the labour of eight years, published in London; which work being extant in the world, nothing further is necessary than to recapitulate therefrom the universals respecting this Most Ancient Church, which will be cited in the present volume. At the outset, however, some passages shall be adduced from the Word, by which it is proved that by "creating" is there signified to produce and form anew, and, properly, to regenerate; on which account it is that regeneration is called a "new creation," by which the universal heaven of angels and the universal Church of men, exist, consist and subsist. That "creating" signifies this, is plainly manifest from these passages in the Word:

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a steadfast spirit in the midst of me (Psalm 51:10).

Thou openest the hand, they are filled with good; Thou sendest forth the Spirit, they are created (Psalm 104:28, 30).

The people that shall be created shall praise Jah (Psalm 102:18).

Thus said Jehovah, thy creator, O Jacob; thy former, O Israel: Every one that is called by My Name, I have created for My glory (Isa. 43:1, 7).

That they may see, know, consider and understand, that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it (Isa. 41:20).

In the day that thou wast created, they were prepared; thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created, until perversity was found in thee (Ezek. 28:13, 15):

these things are concerning the king of Tyre.

Jehovah that createth the heavens, that spreadeth abroad the earth, that giveth breath unto the people upon it (Isa. 42:5; 45:12, 18).

Behold I create a new heaven and a new earth; be ye glad to eternity in that which I create: behold I will create Jerusalem a rejoicing (Isa. 65:17-18).

As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall stand before Me (Isa. 66:22).

I saw a new heaven and a new earth: the former heaven and the former earth are passed away (Rev. 21:1).

We, according to promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein shall dwell righteousness (2 Peter 3:13).

From these passages it is now manifest what is spiritually meant in the first chapter of Genesis, by the verses,

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; and the earth was waste and empty (Gen. 1:1-2).

The earth's being said to be "waste and empty," signifies that there was no longer any good of life or truth of doctrine with its inhabitants. That "wasteness" and "emptiness" signify the lack of those two essentials of the Church, will be established in Proposition IV of this volume, respecting the Israelitish Church, by a thousand passages from the Word: at present let the following in Jeremiah serve for some illustration:

I saw the earth, when, behold, it was vacant and empty; and [I looked] towards the heavens, when their light was not. Thus said Jehovah, The whole earth shall be wasteness; for this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above shall be made black (Jer. 4:23, 27-28).

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