La Bibbia

 

Génesis 1

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1 En el principio creó Dios los cielos y la tierra.

2 Y la tierra estaba desordenada y vacía, y las tinieblas estaban sobre la faz del abismo, y el espíritu de Dios se movía sobre la faz de las aguas.

3 Y dijo Dios: Sea la luz; y fue la luz.

4 Y vio Dios que la luz era buena; y apartó Dios a la luz de las tinieblas.

5 Y llamó Dios a la luz Día, y a las tinieblas llamó Noche; y fue la tarde y la mañana un día.

6 Y dijo Dios: Sea un extendimiento en medio de las aguas, y haya apartamiento entre aguas y aguas.

7 E hizo Dios un extendimiento, y apartó las aguas que estaban debajo del extendimiento, de las aguas que estaban sobre el extendimiento; y fue así.

8 Y llamó Dios al extendimiento Cielos; y fue la tarde y la mañana el día segundo.

9 Y dijo Dios: Júntense las aguas que están debajo de los cielos en un lugar, y descúbrase lo seco; y fue así.

10 Y llamó Dios a lo seco Tierra, y al ayuntamiento de las aguas llamó Mares; y vio Dios que era bueno.

11 Y dijo Dios: Produzca la tierra hierba verde, hierba que haga simiente; árbol de fruto que haga fruto según su naturaleza, que su simiente esté en él sobre la tierra; y fue así.

12 Y produjo la tierra hierba verde, hierba que hace simiente según su naturaleza, y árbol que hace fruto, cuya simiente está en él según su naturaleza; y vio Dios que era bueno.

13 Y fue la tarde y la mañana el día tercero.

14 Y dijo Dios: Sean luminarias en el extendimiento de los cielos para apartar el día y la noche; y sean por señales, y por tiempos determinados , y por días y años;

15 y sean por luminarias en el extendimiento de los cielos para alumbrar sobre la tierra; y fue así.

16 E hizo Dios las dos luminarias grandes; la luminaria grande para que señorease en el día, y la luminaria pequeña para que señorease en la noche, y las estrellas.

17 Y las puso Dios en el extendimiento de los cielos, para alumbrar sobre la tierra,

18 y para señorear en el día y en la noche, y para apartar la luz y las tinieblas; y vio Dios que era bueno.

19 Y fue la tarde y la mañana el día cuarto.

20 Y dijo Dios: Produzcan las aguas gran cantidad de criaturas de alma viviente, y aves que vuelen sobre la tierra, sobre la faz del extendimiento de los cielos.

21 Y creó Dios los grandes dragones, y todo animal que vive , que las aguas produjeron según sus naturalezas, y toda ave de alas según su naturaleza; y vio Dios que era bueno.

22 Y Dios los bendijo diciendo: Fructificad y multiplicaos, y llenad las aguas en los mares, y las aves se multipliquen en la tierra.

23 Y fue la tarde y la mañana el día quinto.

24 Y dijo Dios: Produzca la tierra alma viviente según su naturaleza, bestias y serpientes, y animales de la tierra según su naturaleza; y fue así.

25 E hizo Dios animales de la tierra según su naturaleza, y bestias según su naturaleza, y todas las serpientes de la tierra según su naturaleza; y vio Dios que era bueno.

26 Y dijo Dios: Hagamos al hombre a nuestra imagen, conforme a nuestra semejanza; y señoree en los peces del mar, y en las aves de los cielos, y en las bestias, y en toda la tierra, y en toda serpiente que se anda arrastrando sobre la tierra.

27 Y creó Dios al hombre a su imagen, a imagen de Dios lo creó; macho y hembra los creó.

28 Y los bendijo Dios; y les dijo Dios: Fructificad y multiplicaos, y llenad la tierra, y sojuzgadla, y señoread en los peces del mar, y en las aves de los cielos, y en todas las bestias que se mueven sobre la tierra.

29 Y dijo Dios: He aquí os he dado toda hierba que hace simiente, que está sobre la faz de toda la tierra; y todo árbol en que hay fruto de árbol que haga simiente, os serán para comer.

30 Y a toda bestia de la tierra, y a todas las aves de los cielos, y a todo lo que se mueve sobre la tierra, en que hay ánima viviente, toda verdura de hierba verde les será para comer; y fue así.

31 Y vio Dios todo lo que había hecho, y he aquí que era bueno en gran manera. Y fue la tarde y la mañana el día sexto.

Commento

 

Four

  
Four Mandalas

The number "four" in the Bible represents things being linked together or joined. This is partly because four is two times two, and two represents the ultimate linking between our desire to be good and our understanding of truth. We can also see this in the fact that most buildings are rectangular, with the four sides linking together to make a whole. We also divide directions into four -- north, east, south and west -- and talk about the "four corners" of something meaning all of it. So our special thinking naturally looks at four sides as linking together into a whole.

(Riferimenti: Apocalypse Explained 417; Arcana Coelestia 1686, 9103, 9601, 9767, 9864)

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Arcana Coelestia #9103

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9103. 'And four of the flock for the member of the flock' also means the corresponding punishment carried out in full. This is clear from the meaning of 'four' as joined together, for 'four' is similar in meaning to 'two' because four is the product of two times two (for the meaning of 'two' as joined together, see 5194, 8423, and therefore also 'four', 1686, 8877), from which it follows that those numbers also mean to the complete amount, since what has been joined together is complete; and from the meaning of 'a member of the flock' as interior good, dealt with just above in 9099. The corresponding punishment is meant by 'repaying', at this point 'four of the flock for one member of the flock', 9102. Interior good is what charity in the interior man is called, exterior good being charity in the exterior man. The latter good must receive life from the former, for the good of charity in the interior man is the good of spiritual life, and the good of charity in the exterior man is the good of natural life from the spiritual. This exterior good enters a person's feelings as delight, but not so interior good. Instead this enters his awareness that it ought to be so, and enables his mind to feel contented. In the next life however interior good too enters into a person's feelings.

[2] No one can know the reason why five oxen were to be used in repayment for an ox, and four of the flock for the member of the flock, unless he knows what 'theft' is in the spiritual sense, and also what 'an ox' and 'a member of the flock' are. What these things mean has been explained, namely taking away and alienating exterior and interior good, the taking away being done by evil and the alienation by falsity. Consequently punishment and the restoration of them are meant by 'five' end 'four'; for all numbers in the Word serve to mean spiritual things, see 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 4670, 5265, 6175, at this point things having to do with restoration. That is to say, the number 'five' refers to restoration of exterior good to a great degree, and the number 'four' to restoration of interior good in full. The reason why interior good must be restored completely is that this good constitutes a person's spiritual life; and unless his spiritual life is restored completely the exterior good constituting his natural life cannot be restored; for the latter life is restored by means of the former, as may be recognized from a person's regeneration. The external man is regenerated by means of the internal, see 9043, 9046, 9061; but good in the external or natural man cannot be restored completely because the blow it has been struck remains there as a scar that becomes hardened. These are the things implied by those numbers.

[3] Something further must be said briefly about the restoration of the exterior good constituting a person's natural life by means of the interior good constituting his spiritual life. The natural level of a person's mind sees things in the light of the world, the light that is called natural illumination. A person acquires this illumination through objects entering his awareness by means of sight and hearing, that is, by impressions of objects received from the world. Thus the person sees those objects with his mind's eye almost exactly as his physical eye sees them. Initially the objects that he is made aware of through those senses are all a pleasure and delight to him. Later on, when still a young child, he makes distinctions among the objects that are a delight to him, and thereby learns to discriminate, gradually doing so more and more accurately. When the light from heaven flows into these things the person begins to see them spiritually, discriminating initially between the ones that are useful and those that are not useful. As a consequence he starts to see the truth clearly; for that which he sees to be useful he sees to be true, and that which he does not see to be useful he sees to be not true. This ability to see truth increases as the inflowing light from heaven grows brighter, until eventually he discriminates not only between truths, but even between truths within these truths. And this he does ever more clearly, as the communication between the internal man and the external man is improved and opened up; for the light of heaven flows in from the Lord through the internal man into the external. From this the person now has perception; nevertheless this is still not spiritual perception.

[4] Spiritual perception does not grow out of natural truths but out of spiritual truths, spiritual truths being what are called the truths of faith. The reason why spiritual perception grows out of these truths is that the light of heaven is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord. It is the light that shines for the angels' eyes; it also shines in their understanding and imparts intelligence and wisdom to them, in varying amounts, depending on its reception within good. Therefore, if spiritual perception is to grow a person must have cognitions or knowledge of spiritual things in his natural, and such knowledge of spiritual things must come from revelation. When the light of heaven flows into them it flows into what are its own; for as has been stated, that light is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, see 1053, 1521-1533, 1619-1632, 2776, 3138, 3167, 3195, 3222, 3223, 3341, 3636, 3643, 4180, 4302, 4408, 4415, 4527, 5400, 6032, 6313, 6608. This is how a person acquires intelligence and wisdom in such matters as belong to eternal life; and they increase in the measure that such light - that is, in the measure that the truths of faith - are received within good, the good being charity.

[5] The fact that the natural or external man is regenerated, and also undergoes amendment and is restored by means of the internal, may be recognized from what has now been stated. Things in the external or natural man receive life from the light of heaven; for this light is living, because it emanates from the Lord, who is Life itself. They do not receive their life from natural light, since this light is in itself dead. If therefore things in natural light are to have life there must be an inflow of the living light, coming from the Lord through the internal man. This inflow adjusts itself to cognitions of truth present in the natural that are analogous and correspond, and to other things there that can serve. From this it is evident that a person's external or natural must be regenerated by means of his internal; and the good in the natural that has been taken away or alienated has to be amended and restored by the same means.

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