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

 

Face of the deep

  

The face of the deep (Genesis 1:2) signifies the lust of the unregenerate man, and the falsities that originate from it.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 018, Genesis 1)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #737

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737. It is said in the third verse that the dragon was seen in heaven, and now, that war was made with him in heaven; and afterwards, that the place of him and his angels was not found any more in heaven; and yet in verse nine he is called the old serpent, also the devil and Satan. It may be a matter of wonder to some how the dragon, who is the devil, could be in heaven, and have a place there before he was cast down, when in fact the devil could never have a place in heaven but in hell only. But the case is as follows: by the dragon are not meant those who have denied God and the Lord, rejected the Word, and made no account of the church and its doctrine, for those who do this are cast into hell immediately after death and never appear in heaven, much less have they any place there. Therefore the dragon and his angels mean those who acknowledge God and the Lord, declare the Word to be holy, and uphold the church and its doctrine, but with the lips only and not with the heart. They do not do this with the heart, because they make no account of life, and those who make no account of life are interiorly devils, however much they may outwardly appear like angels. Thus it is evident that through the acknowledgment of God and the Lord, and by the reading and preaching of the Word, they were exteriorly conjoined with heaven, but because they lived in no way in accord with anything of the Lord in the Word, they were interiorly conjoined with hell. Such are called the devil and Satan, because they defiled the truths of the Word by a life of the love of self and of the love of the world, and by the evils which flow from those loves, like streams from their fountains, and because they applied the literal sense of the Word to confirm such a life. Those who are of such a character are serpents more than others, being more hurtful than others, for they have the power to draw over the simple-good, who are in the lowest heaven, to their side, especially by means of those things that they take out from the sense of the letter of the Word, and pervert. It is said that they were seen in heaven, and there fought with Michael and his angels, because they were conjoined with the heavens by means of the Word - for men are conjoined with the heavens by means of the Word; but when it was ascertained that they were in other than heavenly affections, they were cast down out of heaven. Nevertheless, since the completion of the Last Judgment, it has been provided and ordained by the Lord that hereafter only those who are in spiritual faith shall have conjunction with heaven; and spiritual faith is acquired by a life according to the truths of the Word, and such life is called charity. This then is what is signified by The dragon with his angels was cast out unto the earth, and their place was not found any more in heaven.

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.