The Bible

 

创世记 2

Study

   

1 万物都造齐了。

2 第七日,造物的工已经完毕,就在第七日歇了他一切的工,安息了。

3 赐福给第七日,定为日;因为在这日,歇了他一切创造的工,就安息了。

4 创造的来历,在耶和华的日子,乃是这样,

5 还没有木,田间的菜蔬还没有长起来;因为耶和华还没有降上,也没有人耕

6 但有雾气从上腾,滋润遍

7 耶和华用地上的尘土造人,将生气吹在他鼻孔里,他就成了有灵的活人,名叫亚当。

8 耶和华在东方的伊甸立了一个园子,把所造的人安置在那里。

9 耶和华使各样的从地里长出来,可以悦人的眼目,其上的果子作食物。园子当中又有生命和分别善恶的

10 从伊甸流出来,滋润那园子,从那里分为道:

11 道名叫比逊,就是环绕哈腓拉全的。在那里有子,

12 并且那子是的;在那里又有珍珠和红玛瑙。

13 第二道名叫基训,就是环绕古实全的。

14 第三名叫底格里斯,流在亚述的东边。第四就是伯拉

15 耶和华将那人安置在伊甸园,使他修理,看守。

16 耶和华吩咐他说:园中各样上的果子,你可以随意

17 只是分别善恶上的果子,你不可,因为你的日子必定

18 耶和华:那人独居不,我要为他造一个配偶帮助他。

19 耶和华用土所造成的野地各样走兽和空中各样飞到那人面前,甚麽。那人怎样各样的活物,那就是他的名字

20 那人便给一切牲畜和空中飞、野地走都起了名;只是那人没有遇见配偶帮助他。

21 耶和华使他沉睡,他就睡了;於是取下他的肋骨,又把合起来。

22 耶和华就用那人身上所取的肋骨造成一个女人,领他到那人跟前。

23 :这是我中的中的,可以称他为女人,因为他是从男人身上取出来的。

24 因此,要离开父母,与妻子连合,二成为体。

25 当时夫妻人赤身露体,并不羞耻。

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3623

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

3623. Wherefore have I lives? That this signifies that thus there would not be conjunction, is evident from the signification of “lives,” as being conjunction through truths and goods; for when no truth from a common stock or genuine source could be adjoined to natural truth, then neither would there be the adjunction of the natural to the truth of the rational; thus to the rational its life would appear as no life (n. 3493, 3620); hence by the words, “wherefore have I lives?” is signified that thus there would not be conjunction. The reason why here and in other passages lives are spoken of in the plural, is that there are two faculties of life in man; one of which is called the understanding, and is of truth; and the other of which is called the will, and is of good; these two lives or faculties of life make a one when the understanding is of the will, or what is the same, when truth is of good. This is the reason why in the Hebrew tongue frequent mention is made of “life,” and also of “lives.” That mention is made of “lives,” is evident from the following passages in Genesis:

And Jehovah God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).

And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is desirable to the sight, and good for food; and the tree of lives in the midst of the garden (Genesis 2:9).

Behold I do bring the flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of lives (Genesis 6:17).

And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two, two, of all flesh wherein is the breath of lives (Genesis 7:15, n. 780).

All in whose nostrils was the breathing of the breath of lives died (Genesis 6:22).

And in David:

I believe to see the goodness of Jehovah in the land of lives (Psalms 27:13).

Again:

What man is he that desireth lives, and loveth days that he may see good (Psalms 34:12)?

Again:

With Thee is the fountain of lives; in Thy light shall we see light (Psalms 36:9).

In Malachi:

My covenant was with Leviticus of lives and peace (Malachi 2:5).

In Jeremiah:

Thus saith Jehovah, Behold I set before you the way of lives, and the way of death (Jeremiah 21:8).

In Moses:

To love Jehovah thy God, and to obey His voice, and to cleave unto Him for He Is thy lives, and the length of thy days; that thou mayest dwell in the land (Deuteronomy 30:20).

And again:

It is not a vain word from you, because it is your lives, and through this word ye shall prolong your days upon the land (Deuteronomy 32:47); and in other places.

“Lives” are spoken of in the plural because they are two, as was said, and yet a one; as also in the Hebrew tongue are “heavens,” which are many, and yet a one; in like manner “waters,” those above and those beneath (Genesis 1:6-7, 9), which are spiritual things pertaining to the rational and the natural, and which also are to be a one through conjunction. In respect to “lives,” they signify in the plural both what is of the will and what is of the understanding, consequently what is of good and what is of truth; for the life of man is nothing else than good and truth wherein is life from the Lord, inasmuch as man, without good and truth, and life therein, is no man; for man without these would not be able to will anything or think anything, all his faculty of willing being from what is good or what is not good, and his faculty of thinking from what is true or what is not true; hence man has lives, which are one life when his thinking is from his willing, that is, when the truth which is of faith is from the good which is of love.

  
/ 10837  
  

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