The Bible

 

Genesis 1

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1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first Day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

The Bible

 

Genesis 8:17

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17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #10634

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10634. 'Which have not been created in all the earth nor in all nations' means that never before has a Divine Word such as this been present in the world, either where the Church exists or where it does not exist. This is clear from the meaning of 'marvellous things' as the Divine things present in the Word, dealt with immediately above in 10633, which are referred to as 'created' ones when they are Divine from inmost to outermost levels or first to last; from the meaning of 'in all the earth' as wherever the Church exists, for 'the earth' in the Word means the Church, see in the places referred to in 9325; and from the meaning of 'in all nations' as where the Church does not exist, for 'nations' in the Word means those who are outside the Church, because they do not dwell in the light of truth derived from the Word.

[2] The reason why it says that Jehovah is about to do marvels 'which have not been created in all the earth' is that 'creation' means that which is Divine from inmost to outermost levels or first to last. For everything that comes from the Divine begins in Him and continues in accord with true order right through to the lowest and final level. That is, it passes through the heavens right on into the world, which serves as the lowest level, the level on which it comes to rest; for the natural world constitutes the lowest level of Divine order. That which has origins such as these is what the word 'created' is used to refer to. Every created thing in the world is both brought into being and kept in being in accord with that true order; and also the member of the Church who has been regenerated by the Lord by means of truths from the Word is fashioned in accord with it. All this explains why in the Word the Lord is referred to as the Creator, while the person who has been regenerated is referred to as one created anew, see 10373, 10545. The Word too is fashioned in accord with that true order, and since the nature of it is such the word 'created' is used in reference to its marvels.

[3] The same words - 'Before all your people I will do marvels which have not been created in all the earth nor in all nations' - mean in the historical sense that Jehovah was about to perform miracles among the Israelite people which were unheard of in all the earth. In the internal sense however not miracles should be understood but marvels which the Lord was about to do, in that He was about to provide a Word which would be such that by means of it heaven would be joined to the Church, and, to take a universal view, the Lord would be joined to the human race. The idea that the Word is a marvel such as this is unintelligible to those who know nothing at all about the correspondence of natural things with spiritual ones. And people who know nothing at all about the spiritual level on which angels think are also unaware of the inner presence of anything within all the details of the Word, which hold heaven and so Divine life within them. But in fact through correspondence angels perceive every single expression in the Word on a spiritual level when people in the world do so on a natural level. This and nothing else is what makes the Word Divine, so marvellous that there is nothing more marvellous.

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