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

 

Mark 10:6

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6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #897

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897. The subject here being the regenerate member of the Ancient Church, 'seeing means acknowledging and possessing faith. That 'seeing' has this meaning becomes clear from the Word, as in Isaiah,

You did not look to the Maker of it, and Him who fashioned it long ago you did not set. Isaiah 21:11.

This refers to the city of Zion. 'Not seeing Him who fashioned it long ago' means not even acknowledging, let alone possessing faith. In the same prophet,

Make the heart of this people fat and their ears heavy, and plaster over their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and their heart understands and they turn again and are healed. Isaiah 6:10.

'Seeing with the eyes' stands for acknowledging and possessing faith. In the same prophet,

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Isaiah 9:2.

This refers to gentiles who received faith, as does the present verse which says that 'he removed the covering, and saw out'. In the same prophet,

On that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of thick darkness and out of darkness the eyes of the blind will see Isaiah 19:18.

This refers to the conversion of gentiles to faith. 'Seeing' stands for receiving faith. In the same prophet,

Hear, you deaf, look and see, you blind. Isaiah 41:18.

Here the meaning is similar. In Ezekiel,

They have eyes to see but they see not; they have ears to hear but they hear not because they are a rebellious house. Ezekiel 12:2.

This stands for people who are capable of understanding, acknowledging, and possessing faith but who do not wish to. That 'seeing' means possessing faith is quite clear from the representation of the Lord by the bronze serpent in the wilderness when everyone who beheld it would be healed, and of which it is said in Moses,

Set a serpent on a standard, and it will happen that everyone who has been bitten, when he sees it, will live So it happened, if a serpent had bitten a man, when he saw the serpent of bronze, that he lived. Numbers 21:8-9.

Anyone may see from this that 'seeing' means faith, for what else can 'seeing' be in this instance than something representative of faith in the Lord? This point is clear also from the fact that Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, who was given that name from the word 'seeing', in the internal sense means faith. See what has been stated already about the firstborn of the Church in 352, 367.

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