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 #1894

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1894. That 'Sarai' is truth allied to good has been stated and shown already in 1468 and elsewhere; and that 'Abram' is the Lord's Internal Man, which is Jehovah, has likewise been stated and shown. The reason why the Lord's Internal Man, which is Jehovah, is called Man is that nobody is Man except Jehovah alone, for in its genuine sense Man means that Being (Esse) from which man derives his being. Being (Esse) itself - from which man derives his being - is Divine, and is consequently celestial and spiritual. Without that Divine celestial and spiritual there is nothing truly human in man, only something animal-like such as exists in beasts. It is by virtue of Jehovah's or the Lord's Being (Esse) that every man is 'man', and by virtue also of His Being that he is called 'man'. The celestial which makes him man consists in his love of the Lord and his love of the neighbour; and so he is man because he is an image of the Lord and because he has that celestial character from the Lord. Otherwise he is a wild beast.

[2] As regards Jehovah or the Lord being the only Man and that it is by virtue of Him that men are called 'men', also that one is more so man than another, see 49, 288, 477, 565. This matter becomes additionally clear from the fact that Jehovah or the Lord manifested Himself as Man to the patriarchs of the Most Ancient Church, subsequently to Abraham as well, and also to the prophets. This too was why the Lord was pleased, when no man remained on earth any more, that is, when nothing celestial or spiritual was left to mankind any more, to take on human nature by being born as any other, and to make that human nature Divine. In this respect also He is the only Man. In addition to this the whole of heaven presents before the Lord the image of a human being, because it is a presentation of Himself, and as a consequence heaven is called the Grand Man, chiefly from the fact that in heaven the Lord is the All in all.

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