The Bible

 

Genesis 3

Study

   

1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat:

3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8 And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God amongst the trees of the garden.

9 And Jehovah God called unto the man, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 And Jehovah God said unto the woman, What is this thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14 And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15 and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy conception; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18 thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19 in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

20 And the man called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

21 And Jehovah God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed them.

22 And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever-

23 therefore Jehovah God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden the Cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #498

Study this Passage

  
/ 853  
  

498. The conclusion from this is that true freedom of will in spiritual matters resides in a person's soul in full perfection. From there it flows, like a gush of water into a spring, into both parts of his mind, the will and the understanding, and through these into the bodily senses, and into speech and action. Life in a person exists in three degrees: in the soul, the mind and the body with its senses. Everything in a higher degree excels in perfection what is in a lower degree. It is this freedom a person enjoys by means of which, in which and together with which the Lord makes His presence felt by a person, unceasingly pressing to be received. But He never deflects or does away with his freedom, since, as I said before, nothing which a person does without freedom in spiritual matters lasts. It can therefore be said that it is this freedom which permits the Lord to reside in a person's soul.

[2] It is too obvious to require explanation, that wrongdoing is in both the spiritual and natural worlds curbed by laws, since no society anywhere could otherwise be stable. Yet illustrations are needed to show that without those external constraints not only would society come to an end, but the whole human race would perish too. Man is prey to two loves, that of dominating others and that of possessing everyone's wealth. These loves, if given free rein, race away without limit. The hereditary evils a person acquires by birth come chiefly from those two loves. Adam's crime was simply wishing to become like God, an evil ambition the serpent put into his mind, as we are told. So when he was cursed, he was told that the earth should bring forth thorns and thistles for him (Genesis 3:5, 18), meaning all evil and falsity derived from it. All held in thrall by those loves regard themselves alone as the one person in whom and for whom all others exist. They are without pity, fear of God, or love for the neighbour, so that they are unmerciful, savage and cruel, their greed and longing to rob and steal are worthy of hell, and they are cunning and deceitful in carrying out such crimes. Not even the animals of the earth have such innate wickedness, for the only desire which makes them kill and eat other animals is to fill their bellies and to protect themselves. A wicked man, therefore, looked at from the point of view of those loves is more savage, more fierce and worse than any animal.

[3] It becomes clear in riotous crowds, where the restraints of the law are ineffective, that this is what people are like inwardly, as also in cases of massacre and looting, when the signal is given to wreak one's fury on the defeated or besieged; hardly anyone holds his hand until the drum is heard signalling it to cease. These examples show that if there were no fear of legal penalties to deter people, not only society but the whole human race would be destroyed. The only way to be rid of all these evils is to use one's free will in spiritual matters correctly, that is, to focus the mind on thoughts of the conditions of life after death.

  
/ 853  
  

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