Die Bibel

 

Genesis 9

Lernen

   

1 And God blesseth Noah, and his sons, and saith to them, `Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth;

2 and your fear and your dread is on every beast of the earth, and on every fowl of the heavens, on all that creepeth on the ground, and on all fishes of the sea -- into your hand they have been given.

3 Every creeping thing that is alive, to you it is for food; as the green herb I have given to you the whole;

4 only flesh in its life -- its blood -- ye do not eat.

5 `And only your blood for your lives do I require; from the hand of every living thing I require it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother I require the life of man;

6 whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man is his blood shed: for in the image of God hath He made man.

7 And ye, be fruitful and multiply, teem in the earth, and multiply in it.'

8 And God speaketh unto Noah, and unto his sons with him, saying,

9 `And I, lo, I am establishing My covenant with you, and with your seed after you,

10 and with every living creature which [is] with you, among fowl, among cattle, and among every beast of the earth with you, from all who are going out of the ark -- to every beast of the earth.

11 And I have established My covenant with you, and all flesh is not any more cut off by waters of a deluge, and there is not any more a deluge to destroy the earth.'

12 And God saith, `This is a token of the covenant which I am giving between Me and you, and every living creature that [is] with you, to generations age-during;

13 My bow I have given in the cloud, and it hath been for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth;

14 and it hath come to pass (in My sending a cloud over the earth) that the bow hath been seen in the cloud,

15 and I have remembered My covenant which is between Me and you, and every living creature among all flesh, and the waters become no more a deluge to destroy all flesh;

16 and the bow hath been in the cloud, and I have seen it -- to remember the covenant age-during between God and every living creature among all flesh which [is] on the earth.'

17 And God saith unto Noah, `This [is] a token of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that [is] upon the earth.'

18 And the sons of Noah who are going out of the ark are Shem, and Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is father of Canaan.

19 These three [are] sons of Noah, and from these hath all the earth been overspread.

20 And Noah remaineth a man of the ground, and planteth a vineyard,

21 and drinketh of the wine, and is drunken, and uncovereth himself in the midst of the tent.

22 And Ham, father of Canaan, seeth the nakedness of his father, and declareth to his two brethren without.

23 And Shem taketh -- Japheth also -- the garment, and they place on the shoulder of them both, and go backward, and cover the nakedness of their father; and their faces [are] backward, and their father's nakedness they have not seen.

24 And Noah awaketh from his wine, and knoweth that which his young son hath done to him,

25 and saith: `Cursed [is] Canaan, Servant of servants he is to his brethren.'

26 And he saith: `Blessed of Jehovah my God [is] Shem, And Canaan is servant to him.

27 God doth give beauty to Japheth, And he dwelleth in tents of Shem, And Canaan is servant to him.'

28 And Noah liveth after the deluge three hundred and fifty years;

29 and all the days of Noah are nine hundred and fifty years, and he dieth.

   

Aus Swedenborgs Werken

 

Arcana Coelestia #1032

studieren Sie diesen Abschnitt

  
/ 10837  
  

1032. That 'and I will establish My covenant with you' means the Lord's presence with all people who have charity, and refers to 'those going out of the ark' and to 'every wild animal of the earth', that is, to people inside the Church and to those outside of it, is clear from what has been stated just above. With regard to the Lord also entering into a covenant with, that is, joining Himself by means of charity to people outside of the Church who are called gentiles, the position is this: The member of the Church imagines that all outside of the Church who are called gentiles cannot be saved because they do not possess any cognitions of faith and do not therefore know the Lord at all. Churchmen say that without faith and without knowledge of the Lord there is no salvation, and so all who are outside of the Church stand condemned. Indeed many such persons possessing some doctrine, even those embracing heresy, imagine that all outside of the Church, that is, all who do not feel as they do, are not saved. But the reality is altogether different. The Lord has mercy towards the whole human race, and wishes to save and draw to Himself all people throughout the universe.

[2] The Lord's mercy is infinite and will not let itself be limited to the few who are inside the Church. Instead it reaches out to all in the whole wide world. No one can be blamed because he has been born outside of the Church and so has no knowledge of matters of faith. Nor is anybody in any way condemned for having no faith in the Lord because he does not know Him. What right-thinking person is ever going to say that the greater part of the human race will perish in eternal death just because they have not been born in Europe whose inhabitants are relatively few? And what right-thinking person is going to say that the Lord would allow such a large number of people to be born so as to perish in eternal death? That would be contrary to the Divine and contrary to mercy. And in any case people outside of the Church, called gentiles, lead a far more upright life than those inside the Church do, and they embrace far more readily that which true faith teaches. This matter becomes clearer still from souls in the next life.

[3] From the so-called Christian world come the worst people of all, those in whom deadly hatred of the neighbour and deadly hatred of the Lord prevail. More than anybody else in the whole world they are adulterers. But this is not true of all other parts of the world; for a large number of those who have worshipped idols have an attitude of mind that finds hatred and adultery abhorrent, and they fear Christians for being such and for wishing to subject everybody else to torture. Indeed gentiles are such that when taught by angels about truths of faith and that the Lord rules over all, they have no difficulty in listening and have no difficulty in being endued with faith, and so casting aside their idols. Consequently those gentiles who have led an upright life, and have done so in mutual charity and in innocence, are regenerated in the next life. While they are living in the world the Lord is present with them in their charity and innocence, for no charity or innocence exists at all except that which comes from the Lord. The Lord also confers on them, according to the religion they have, a conscience for what is right and good, and instills innocence and charity into that conscience. And when innocence and charity exist in conscience they allow themselves without difficulty to be endued with the truth of faith deriving from good. The Lord Himself has said all this in Luke,

Someone said to Jesus, Lord, are those who are saved few? He said to them, You will see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrust out. On the other hand men will come from the east and from the west, and from the north and from the south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God. And, behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last. Luke 13:23, 28-30.

'Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' here are used to mean all who dwell in love, as shown already.

  
/ 10837  
  

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