Bibliorum

 

Genesis 2

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1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

   

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Spiritual Experiences #1973

  
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1973. What "evening and morning," "day," Genesis I, are

I discussed with spirits what "day" means, and what "evening and morning," Gen. I. That "day" means time in general one can very readily learn from the Scriptures, where that expression stands for time.

  
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Thanks to the Academy of the New Church, and Bryn Athyn College, for the permission to use this translation.

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #991

Studere hoc loco

  
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991. 'All fish of the sea' means facts. This is clear from the meaning of 'a fish'. In the Word fish mean facts that spring from sensory evidence, for there are three types of facts - intellectual, rational, and sensory. All are implanted in the memory - or rather, in the memories 1 - and in someone who is regenerate are summoned from there by the Lord by way of the internal man. These facts which come from sensory evidence enter a person's consciousness or perception during his earthly life, for they are the basis of his thinking. The rest, which are more interior, do not do so until he has shed the body and enters the next life. On the point that fish or creeping things which the waters produce mean facts, see what has been said already in 40; and that sea-monsters or whales mean general sources of facts, see 42. These points become additionally clear from the following places in the Word:

In Zephaniah,

I will cause man and beast to cease, I will cause the birds of the air and the fish of the sea to cease. Zephaniah 1:3.

Here 'birds of the air' stands for rational concepts, 'fish of the sea' for rational concepts of a lower order, that is, for human thought from factual knowledge derived through the senses.

[2] In Habakkuk,

You will make man like the fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler. Habakkuk 1:14.

'Making man like the fish of the sea' stands for making him dependent solely on the senses.

In Hosea,

The land will mourn, and every inhabitant will languish, even the wild animal of the field, and the birds of the air, 2 and even the fish of the sea will all be gathered together. Hosea 4:3.

Here 'fish of the sea' stands for factual knowledge derived through the senses.

In David,

You have put all things under His feet, the beasts of the fields, the flying things of the air, 3 and the fish of the sea, and that crossing the paths of the seas. Psalms 8:6-8.

This refers to the Lord's dominion over man. 'Fish of the sea' stands for facts. That 'seas' means a gathering of facts or cognitions, see what has appeared already in 28.

In Isaiah,

The fishermen will lament, and all who cast a hook into the river will mourn, and those who spread nets over the face' 4 of the waters will languish. Isaiah 19:8.

'Fishermen' stands for people who rely on sensory evidence alone and hatch falsities out of it, the subject being Egypt, or factual knowledge.

V:

1. i.e. in the interior memory and in the exterior memory. See 2469 and following paragraphs

2. literally, bird of the heavens (or the skies)

3. literally, the flying thing of the heavens (or the skies)

4. literally, the faces

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