The Bible

 

Ezechiel 47

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1 Potom přivedl mne zase ke dveřím domu, a aj, vody vycházely od spodku prahu domu na východ; nebo přední strana domu k východu byla, a vody scházely pozpodu po pravé straně domu, po straně polední oltáře.

2 Odtud mne vyvedl cestou brány půlnoční, a obvedl mne cestou zevnitřní k bráně zevnitřní, cestou, kteráž patří k východu, a aj, vody vyplývaly po pravé straně.

3 Když pak vycházel ten muž k východu, v jehož rukou míra, i naměřil tisíc loket, a provedl mne skrze vodu,vodu do kůtků.

4 Potom naměřiv tisíc, provedl mne skrze vodu, vodu do kolenou; ještě naměřiv tisíc, provedl mne vodou do pasu.

5 Opět když naměřil tisíc, byl potok, kteréhož jsem nemohl přebřísti; nebo vyzdvihly se vody, vody, přes něž by se musilo plynouti, potok, kterýž by nemohl přebředen býti.

6 Tedy řekl mi: Viděl-lis, synu člověčí? I vedl mne, a posadil mne na břeh toho potoka.

7 Když jsem se pak obrátil, aj, na břehu toho potoka bylo dříví velmi veliké po obou stranách.

8 I řekl mi: Vody tyto vycházejí od Galilee první, a sstupujíce po rovině, vejdou do moře, a když do moře vpadnou, opraví se vody.

9 I stane se, že každý živočich, kterýž se plazí, všudy, kamžkoli přijdou potokové, ožive, a bude ryb velmi mnoho, proto že když přijdou tam tyto vody, očerstvějí, a živy budou všudy, kdežkoli dojde tento potok.

10 Stane se i to, že se postaví podlé něho rybáři od Engadi až do studnice Eglaim; budou tu rozstírány síti. Podlé rozličnosti své bude ryb jejich, jako ryb moře velikého, velmi mnoho.

11 Bahna a louže jeho, kteréž se neopraví, soli oddány budou.

12 Při potoku pak poroste na břehu jeho po obou stranách všelijaké dříví ovoce nesoucí, jehož list neprší, aniž ovoce jeho přestává, v měsících svých nese prvotiny; nebo vody jeho z svatyně vycházejí, protož ovoce jeho jest ku pokrmu, a lístí jeho k lékařství.

13 Takto praví Panovník Hospodin: Totoť jest obmezení, v němž sobě dědičně přivlastníte zemi po pokoleních Izraelských dvanácti; Jozefovi dva provazcové.

14 Dědičně, pravím, jí vládnouti budete, jeden rovně jako druhý, o níž přisáhl jsem, že ji dám otcům vašim. I připadne vám země tato v dědictví.

15 Toto jest tedy pomezí té země: K straně půlnoční od moře velikého cestou Chetlonu, kudyž se vchází do Sedad,

16 Emat, Berota, Sibraim, kteříž jsou mezi pomezím Damašským, a mezi pomezím Emat, vsi prostřední, kteréž jsou při pomezí Chavrón.

17 A tak bude pomezí od moře Azar Enon, pomezí Damašek, a půlnoční strana na půlnoci, a pomezí Emat. A to jest strana půlnoční.

18 Strana pak východní mezi Chavrón a mezi Damaškem, a mezi Galád, a mezi zemí Izraelskou při Jordánu; od toho pomezí při moři východním měřiti budete. A toť jest strana východní.

19 Strana pak polední na poledne, od Támar až k vodám sváru v Kádes, od potoka až k moři velikému. A to jest strana polední na poledne.

20 Strana pak západní moře veliké, od pomezí až naproti, kudyž se vchází do Emat. Ta jest strana západní.

21 A tak rozdělíte zemi tuto sobě po pokoleních Izraelských.

22 I stane se, že když ji rozměříte, bude vám v dědictví i příchozím, kteříž by pohostinu byli mezi vámi, kteříž by zplodili syny mezi vámi; nebo budou vám jako tu zrodilí mezi syny Izraelskými, s vámiť ujmou dědictví mezi pokoleními Izraelskými.

23 Protož nechť jest v tom pokolení příchozí, u něhož pohostinu jest. Tu dědictví dáte jemu, praví Panovník Hospodin.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #405

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405. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died. (8:9) This symbolically means that those who had lived that faith and continued to live it could not be reformed and receive life.

A third symbolizes all such, as said above. Creatures mean people who can be reformed (no. 290). The reason is that to create means, symbolically, to reform (no. 254). Their living means, symbolically, to be able by reformation to receive life. That they died means, symbolically, that people who live that faith alone cannot receive life. They cannot, because people are all reformed by a faith united to charity, thus by a faith accompanying charity, and none by faith alone; for charity is the life of faith.

[2] Since in the spiritual world the affections and consequent perceptions and thoughts of spirits and angels appear at a distance in the forms of animals or creatures on the earth called beasts, of creatures in the air called birds, and of creatures in the sea called fish, therefore the Word so often mentions beasts, birds, and fish, which nevertheless have precisely the meaning stated. So for example in the following places:

...Jehovah has a quarrel with the inhabitants of the land, for there is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God... And everyone who dwells in it will waste away along with the beast of the field and the bird of the air; even the fish of the sea will be gathered up. (Hosea 4:1, 3)

I will consume man and beast..., the bird of the heavens, the fish of the sea, ...the stumbling blocks along with the impious... (Zephaniah 1:3)

There shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, and the fish of the sea, the bird of the heavens, and the beast of the field... shall tremble before Me. (Ezekiel 38:18-20)

You have made Him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet... the beasts of the fields, the bird of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the path of the seas. (Psalms 8:6-8)

The latter is said of the Lord.

Pray ask the beasts, and they will teach you; or the birds of the air, and they will inform you...; and the fish of the sea will tell you. Who of all these does not know that the hand of Jehovah has done this? (Job 12:7-9)

And in many other places as well.

[3] Fish, moreover, and creatures of the sea, as they are called here, mean the affections and consequent thoughts of such people as are concerned with general truths, and so who take more from a natural source than from a spiritual one. These people are meant by fish in the preceding passages, and also in the following ones:

By My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink... and die of thirst. (Isaiah 50:2)

...the king of Egypt, a great whale, you who lie in the midst of your rivers, you said, "The river is mine; I made myself..".. (Therefore) I will cause the fish of your rivers to stick to your scales..., and I will leave you in the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers. (Ezekiel 29:3-5)

This was addressed to the king of Egypt, because Egypt symbolizes the natural level divorced from the spiritual one, and so the fish of his rivers mean people governed by doctrines, who because of them are caught up in faith separated from charity, a faith that is simply knowledge.

Because of that separation, moreover, one of the miracles in Egypt was the turning of their waters into blood, so that the fish died (Exodus 7:17-25, Psalms 105:29).

[4] Furthermore:

Why do You make mankind like fish of the sea...? Everyone draws them up with a hook, and gathers them in a net... (Habakkuk 1:14-16)

Fish here stand for people concerned with general truths and caught up in faith divorced from charity. In contrast, fish stand for people concerned with general truths and governed by a faith conjoined with charity in Ezekiel:

He said to me: "These waters flowing to the eastern boundary... enter the sea, (from which comes) every living soul that creeps... and very much fish... ...fishermen will stand by it... with a spreading of their nets. Its fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many. (Ezekiel 47:1, 8-10)

In Matthew:

(Jesus said,) the kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea, and they gathered (fish).... And they put the good ones into vessels and threw the bad away. (Matthew 13:47-49)

And in Jeremiah:

I will bring (the children of Israel) back into their land... And I will send for many fishermen...(who) shall fish them. (Jeremiah 16:15-16)

[5] Consequently, anyone who knows that fish symbolize people and things of the kind stated, can see the following: Why the Lord chose fishermen to be His disciples, and said,

Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men. (Matthew 4:18-19)

Why the disciples, with the Lord's blessing, caught a huge multitude of fish, and the Lord said to Peter,

Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men. (Luke 5:2-10)

Why, when they wished to exact tribute from the Lord, He told Peter to go to the sea and draw out a fish, and to give them the coin found in it for Him and for himself (Matthew 16:24-27).

Why, after His resurrection, the Lord gave His disciples fish and bread to eat (John 21:2-13).

And why He told them to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). For the nations they were converting possessed only general truths, and were concerned more with natural things than spiritual ones.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

John 20

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1 Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went early, while it was still dark, to the tomb, and saw the stone taken away from the tomb.

2 Therefore she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have laid him!"

3 Therefore Peter and the other disciple went out, and they went toward the tomb.

4 They both ran together. The other disciple outran Peter, and came to the tomb first.

5 Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths lying, yet he didn't enter in.

6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and entered into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying,

7 and the cloth that had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself.

8 So then the other disciple who came first to the tomb also entered in, and he saw and believed.

9 For as yet they didn't know the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

10 So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

11 But Mary was standing outside at the tomb weeping. So, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb,

12 and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

13 They told her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have laid him."

14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, and didn't know that it was Jesus.

15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?" She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."

16 Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him, "Rabboni!" which is to say, "Teacher!"

17 Jesus said to her, "Don't hold me, for I haven't yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers, and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.

19 When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be to you."

20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord.

21 Jesus therefore said to them again, "Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."

22 When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit!

23 Whoever's sins you forgive, they are forgiven them. Whoever's sins you retain, they have been retained."

24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, wasn't with them when Jesus came.

25 The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

26 After eight days again his disciples were inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being locked, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace be to you."

27 Then he said to Thomas, "Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don't be unbelieving, but believing."

28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"

29 Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed."

30 Therefore Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book;

31 but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.