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.

Commentary

 

Call

  
Two whitetail deer, photo by Joy Feerrar

To call someone or summon someone in the Bible represents a desire for conjunction between higher and lower states of life.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Heaven and Hell #348

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348. By those who "turn many to righteousness" are meant those who are wise, and in heaven those are called wise who are in good, and those there are in good who apply Divine truths at once to the life; for as soon as Divine truth comes to be of the life it becomes good, since it comes to be of will and love, and whatever is of will and love is called good; therefore such are called wise because wisdom is of the life. But those who do not commit Divine truths at once to the life, but first to the memory, from which they afterwards draw them and apply them to the life, are called the "intelligent". What and how great the difference is between the wise and the intelligent in the heavens can be seen in the section that treats of the two kingdoms of heaven, the celestial and the spiritual (20-28), and in the section that treats of the three heavens (29-40). Those who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom, and consequently in the third or inmost heaven, are called "the righteous" because they attribute no justice to themselves, but all to the Lord. The Lord's justice in heaven is the good that is from the Lord. 1 Such, then, are here meant by those that "turn to righteousness"; and such are meant also in the Lord's words,

The righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of My Father. Matthew 13:43.

Such "shine forth as the sun" because they are in love to the Lord from the Lord, and that love is meant by the "sun" (see above, 116-125). The light pertaining to these is flame-coloured; and the ideas of their thought are so tinged with what is flaming because they receive the good of love directly from the Lord as the Sun in heaven.

Footnotes:

1. [Swedenborg's footnote] The merit and justice of the Lord is the good that rules in heaven (Arcana Coelestia 9486, 9983).

He that is "righteous" or "made righteous" is one to whom the merit and justice of the Lord is ascribed; and he is "unrighteous" who holds to his own justice and merit (Arcana Coelestia 5069, 9263).

The quality of those in the other life who claim justice to themselves (Arcana Coelestia 942, 2027).

In the Word "justice" is predicated of good and "judgment" of truth; therefore "doing righteousness and judgment" is doing good and truth (Arcana Coelestia 2235, 9857).

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