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 9:6

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6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #10122

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10122. 'And a young bull of sin [offering] you shall offer daily at propitiations' means the continuous removal of evils and consequently of falsities in the natural man by means of the good of innocence from the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'a young bull' as the good of innocence in the natural man, dealt with in 9391, 9990; from the meaning of 'sin' as purification from evils and consequently falsities (by 'sin' a sacrifice for sin should be understood, 10039, and 'a sin sacrifice' means purification from evils and falsities, 9938, 9990, 10022, 10053), the reason for saying 'the removal' of evils and consequently of falsities being that the evils and falsities with a person are not cast out, only removed or moved back, see the places referred to in 10057; from the meaning of 'daily' or each day as continuously; and from the meaning of 'propitiations' as reception of the good of love and truth of faith from the Lord after the removal of evils and consequently of falsities, dealt with in 9506.

[2] The words 'removal of evils and consequently of falsities' are used because all falsities exist as a result of evil; therefore to the extent that evil is removed falsities are removed. The situation is that all things in heaven have connection with good and consequently with truth, and all things in hell with evil and consequently with falsity. The same is so in people. All the things with a person that come from heaven have connection with good and truth, and all those that come from hell have connection with evil and falsity. Or what amounts to the same thing, all things with a person which originate in the Lord have connection with good and truth, but all that originate in the person himself have connection with evil and falsity. Since good and truth or falsity and evil are what everything throughout creation has connection with, and the human being is the place where they are received, a person has two mental powers to receive them. One is called the will and the other the understanding, the will being what receives good or evil, and the understanding what receives truth or falsity. The will formed by the Lord, also called the new will, receives good, while the understanding formed by the Lord, also called the new understanding, receives truth. But the will properly a person's own, also called the old will, receives evil, and the understanding properly a person's own, also called the old understanding, receives falsity. A person possesses the old will and understanding through being born from his parents, but he comes to have the new will and understanding through being born from the Lord, which happens when he is being regenerated. For when being regenerated a person is conceived anew and is born anew.

[3] The human being has been created in such a way that will and understanding may make one, so that these two together may constitute a whole person. For a person has been given an understanding to comprehend truth, yet to the end that truth may be implanted in his will and become good. And to the extent that it is integrated into the will it has a place in that person; for the will is the inmost part of a person and is the inner being of his life, whereas the understanding is more external and derives its being from the will. For what a person wills he loves, and what he loves gives him a feeling of delight and is therefore called good by him. The understanding lends support to and strengthens it by means of reasons which it calls truths. So it is that will and understanding in reality make one. The situation may indeed seem to be other than this, as when a person understands the truth and yet wills what is evil; even so, when he is left alone to think for himself, what he understands is in full agreement with what he wills, that is, what he loves.

[4] The fact that a person who wills what is evil can nevertheless speak what is true and also do what is good is due to hypocrisy, which uses truth and good as means to its own ends. If those means are taken away from such a person and he is left in freedom, he plunges, under the influence of his unrestrained will, into evils, and uses his power of understanding to defend them. This is above all evident from the same kind of people in the next life. There everyone comes into a state [of life] akin to that of his will, and then people in whom a new will has not been formed by the Lord plunge into evils of every kind and think such things as endorse evils, even though what they had spoken and what they had done in the world had been completely different from this. For it is a law of Divine order that will and understanding should form a mind at unity, thus a person at unity, consequently that the entire person should be either in heaven or in hell and not hanging between the two, that is, with his eye looking towards the things of heaven and his heart set on those of hell. By heart is meant the will, and by eye the understanding.

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