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Genesi 1

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1 Nel principio Iddio creò i cieli e la terra.

2 E la terra era informe e vuota, e le tenebre coprivano la faccia dell’abisso, e lo spirito di Dio aleggiava sulla superficie delle acque. E Dio disse:

3 "Sia la luce!" E la luce fu.

4 E Dio vide che la luce era buona; e Dio separò la luce dalle tenebre.

5 E Dio chiamò la luce "giorno", e le tenebre "notte". Così fu sera, poi fu mattina: e fu il primo giorno.

6 Poi Dio disse: "Ci sia una distesa tra le acque, che separi le acque dalle acque".

7 E Dio fece la distesa e separò le acque ch’erano sotto la distesa, dalle acque ch’erano sopra la distesa. E così fu.

8 E Dio chiamò la distesa "cielo". Così fu sera, poi fu mattina: e fu il secondo giorno.

9 Poi Dio disse: "Le acque che son sotto il cielo siano raccolte in un unico luogo, e apparisca l’asciutto". E così fu.

10 E Dio chiamò l’asciutto "terra", e chiamò la raccolta delle acque "mari". E Dio vide che questo era buono.

11 Poi Dio disse: "Produca la terra della verdura, dell’erbe che faccian seme e degli alberi fruttiferi che, secondo la loro specie, portino del frutto avente in sé la propria semenza, sulla terra". E così fu.

12 E la terra produsse della verdura, dell’erbe che facevan seme secondo la loro specie, e degli alberi che portavano del frutto avente in sé la propria semenza, secondo la loro specie. E Dio vide che questo era buono.

13 Così fu sera, poi fu mattina: e fu il terzo giorno.

14 Poi Dio disse: "Sianvi de’ luminari nella distesa dei cieli per separare il giorno dalla notte; e siano dei segni e per le stagioni e per i giorni e per gli anni;

15 e servano da luminari nella distesa dei cieli per dar luce alla terra". E così fu.

16 E Dio fece i due grandi luminari: il luminare maggiore, per presiedere al giorno, e il luminare minore per presiedere alla notte; e fece pure le stelle.

17 E Dio li mise nella distesa dei cieli per dar luce alla terra,

18 per presiedere al giorno e alla notte e separare la luce dalle tenebre. E Dio vide che questo era buono.

19 Così fu sera, poi fu mattina: e fu il quarto giorno.

20 Poi Dio disse: "Producano le acque in abbondanza animali viventi, e volino degli uccelli sopra la terra per l’ampia distesa del cielo".

21 E Dio creò i grandi animali acquatici e tutti gli esseri viventi che si muovono, i quali le acque produssero in abbondanza secondo la loro specie, ed ogni volatilo secondo la sua specie. E Dio vide che questo era buono.

22 E Dio li benedisse, dicendo: "Crescete, moltiplicate, ed empite le acque dei mari, e moltiplichino gli uccelli sulla terra".

23 Così fu sera, poi fu mattina: e fu il quinto giorno.

24 Poi Dio disse: "Produca la terra animali viventi secondo la loro specie: bestiame, rettili e animali selvatici della terra, secondo la loro specie". E così fu.

25 E Dio fece gli animali selvatici della terra, secondo le loro specie, il bestiame secondo le sue specie, e tutti i rettili della terra, secondo le loro specie. E Dio vide che questo era buono.

26 Poi Dio disse: "Facciamo l’uomo a nostra immagine e a nostra somiglianza, ed abbia dominio sui pesci del mare e sugli uccelli del cielo e sul bestiame e su tutta la terra e su tutti i rettili che strisciano sulla terra".

27 E Dio creò l’uomo a sua immagine; lo creò a immagine di Dio; li creò maschio e femmina.

28 E Dio li benedisse; e Dio disse loro: "Crescete e moltiplicate e riempite la terra, e rendetevela soggetta, e dominate sui pesci del mare e sugli uccelli del cielo e sopra ogni animale che si muove sulla terra".

29 E Dio disse: "Ecco, io vi do ogni erba che fa seme sulla superficie di tutta la terra, ed ogni albero fruttifero che fa seme; questo vi servirà di nutrimento.

30 E ad ogni animale della terra e ad ogni uccello dei cieli e a tutto ciò che si muove sulla terra ed ha in sé un soffio di vita, io do ogni erba verde per nutrimento". E così fu.

31 E Dio vide tutto quello che aveva fatto, ed ecco, era molto buono. Così fu sera, poi fu mattina: e fu il sesto giorno.

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The Last Judgement #20

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20. Anyone who has learned about God's order can also understand that man was created so as to become an angel, because in him order reaches its ultimate stage (see 9 above). In this stage something of the wisdom of heaven and the angels can be formed, and it can be reconstituted and multiplied. God's order never stops half-way, and forms anything there without the ultimate stage; for it is not in its fullness and perfection unless it goes to the ultimate. But when it is there, then it takes shape and uses the means at its disposal there to reconstitute and extend itself, which it does by reproduction. The ultimate is therefore the seed-bed of heaven.

This too is what is meant by the description of man and his creation in the first chapter of Genesis:

God said, Let us make 1 man in our image, according to our likeness. And God created man in His image, in the image of God did He create him. Male and female He created them; and God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply. Genesis 1:26-28.

Creating in the image of God and in the likeness of God means conferring on him the whole of God's order from first to last, and so making him an angel as regards the interiors of his mind.

Bilješke:

1. [Reading faciamus as AC for faciemus (We shall make).]

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

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The Last Judgement #9

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9. 1 The human race is the foundation on which heaven is built, because man is the final creation; and what is created last is the foundation of all that precedes. Creation began with the highest or inmost, because it came from God, and advanced to the lowest or outermost, and there it first halted. The lowest level of creation is the natural world, containing the globe with its lands and seas together with everything on it. On completion of this stage man was created; and on him was conferred the whole of God's order from first to last. The first principles of that order were conferred upon his inmost nature, the last expressions of it upon his ultimate nature. Thus man was made as a model of God's order. Hence it is that everything in and present with man is of both heavenly and worldly origin. His mental attributes derive from heaven, his bodily attributes from the world. For influences from heaven act upon his thoughts and affections and dispose them in keeping with the way his spirit receives those influences. Influences from the world act upon his senses and appetites and dispose them in keeping with the way his body receives them, but they are adapted to suit the thoughts and affections of his spirit.

[2] Numerous passages in HEAVEN AND HELL can be constituted to prove the truth of this. The whole of heaven taken together relates to a single human being (59-67); likewise each separate community in the heavens (68-72). Consequently each individual angel has a perfect human form (73-77); and this is the result of the Lord's Divine Human (78-86). See further in the sections on the correspondence of everything in heaven with everything in man (87-102), the correspondence of heaven with everything on earth (103-115) and the arrangement of heaven (200-212).

[3] From this ordering of creation it can be seen that the coherent linkage from first things to last is such that taken together they make up a single unit; in this prior cannot be separated from posterior, just as cause cannot be separated from the effect produced by it. Thus the spiritual world cannot be separated from the natural world, nor this from the spiritual. In the same way the heaven where the angels are cannot be separated from the human race, nor the human race from that heaven. It has therefore been provided by the Lord that one should perform services for the other, that is, the heaven of angels should perform services for the human race, and the human race for the heaven of angels.

[4] So it is that the dwellings of angels are in heaven, to all appearance separate from the places where people on earth live; but the angels are still present with human beings in their affections for good and truth. Their being seen to be apart is an appearance, as can be established from the section in HEAVEN AND HELL dealing with space in heaven (191-199).

[5] The following words of the Lord mean that the dwellings of angels are with human beings in their affections for good and truth:

He who loves me, keeps my word, and my Father will love him; and we shall come to him and make our dwelling with him. John 14:23.

[6] The Father and the Lord also there mean heaven, for where the Lord is, there is heaven. The Divine proceeding from the Lord makes heaven (see HEAVEN AND HELL 7-12, 116-125). These words of the Lord also mean the same:

The comforter, the spirit of truth, remains among you and is in you. John 14:17.

The Comforter is Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord, which is why He is also called the Spirit of truth. Divine truth makes heaven, and also the angels, because they receive that truth. For the Divine proceeding from the Lord being Divine Truth, the source of the heaven of angels, see HEAVEN AND HELL 126-140.

These words of the Lord too have a similar meaning: The kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21.

[7] The kingdom of God is Divine good and truth, which angels receive. The presence of angels and spirits with human beings and in their affections has been granted me to see a thousand times from their presence and dwelling with me. But angels and spirits do not know with which human beings they are, neither do human beings know with which angels and spirits they live; the Lord alone knows and arranges this.

In short, all affections for good and truth reach out into heaven, and there is thus connexion and linking with those there who have similar affections. All affections for evil and falsity reach out into hell, and there is thus connexion and linking with those there who have similar affections. Affections reach out into the spiritual world, almost as the range of sight reaches out into the natural world. The connexions in either place are much alike, the difference being that in the natural world they are with things, in the spiritual world with communities of angels.

[8] This makes it plain that the connexion between the heaven of angels and the human race is such that the existence of one is dependent upon the other. The heaven of angels without the human race would be like a house without a foundation, for heaven comes to an end in humanity and rests upon it. The situation is parallel to that in the individual person: his spiritual side, which is where his thoughts and will reside, acts upon his natural side, which is where his sense-impressions and actions take place, and in this they come to an end and stop. If a person did not have a natural side as well as a spiritual, and so was without those final and last stages, his spiritual side, the thoughts and affections of his spirit, would be dissipated, like things lacking boundaries.

[9] There is a similar event when a person passes from the natural world into the spiritual, which happens at death. Then, since he is a spirit, he stands not on his own base, but upon the common base, namely, the human race. Anyone unfamiliar with the secrets of heaven might think that angels can exist without human beings and human beings without angels. But I can emphatically state from all my experience of heaven, and from all my conversations with angels, that there is no angel or spirit who exists without a human being, and no human being without a spirit or angel; there is a mutual and reciprocal link. These considerations establish firstly that the human race and the heaven of angels make up a single unit, and depend on each other for their continued existence, so that one cannot be taken away from the other.

Bilješke:

1. [There is no 8 in the first edition.]

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