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

 

Fruit

  
Apples at the farm market

We tend to think of "fruit" in two ways in natural language. One is as food that grows on trees and vines, sweet and delicious, and able to be eaten without harming the plant in any way. Another is as the things we produce, what our work yields for the betterment of the world. These are obviously connected: we are like trees, producing things that "feed" the world in some way, just as the tree produces fruit that feeds us. It makes sense, then, that the idea of fruit in the Bible is bound closely to the idea of goodness. Fruits that are eaten represent the desire for good and the energy to do what is good; fruit that is produced is the actual good that we go into the world and do.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #5622

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5622. 'Pistachio nuts and almonds' means forms of the good of life that agree with those truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'pistachio nuts' as forms of the good of life that agree with the truths of exterior natural good, meant by 'resin', dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'almonds' as forms of the good of life that agree with the truths of interior natural good, meant by 'aromatic wax and stacte'. Those nuts have that meaning because they are fruits, and 'fruits' in the Word means deeds - fruits produced by useful trees meaning good deeds, or what amounts to the same, forms of the good of life, since these, so far as the use they serve is concerned, are good deeds. The reason 'pistachio nuts' means forms of the good of life that agree with the truths of exterior natural good is that they are the fruit borne by an inferior kind of tree, and things of an exterior nature are meant by objects of an inferior kind, for the reason that essentially exterior things are not so specific as interior ones since they are the general appearances produced by large numbers of inner components.

[2] The reason 'almonds' means forms of the good of life that agree with the truths of interior natural good is that the almond is a superior kind of tree. In the spiritual sense the tree itself means a perception of interior truth derived from good, its blossom means interior truth derived from good, while its fruit means the good of life resulting from that truth. The word 'almond' is used with this meaning in Jeremiah,

The word of Jehovah came [to me], saying, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, A rod of almond do I see. Then Jehovah said to me, You have seen well, 1 for I am watching over My word to perform it. Jeremiah 1:11-12.

'A rod' stands for power, 'almond' for a perception of interior truth; and because this rod is said to be Jehovah's it stands for a watching over that truth -'word' standing for truth.

[3] The almonds which blossomed on Aaron's rod for the tribe of Levi also mean the good deeds of charity or forms of the good of life. They are described in Moses as follows,

It happened the next day, when Moses went into the tent of meeting, that behold, Aaron's rod for the house 2 of Levi had blossomed, and had produced buds, 3 so that it flowered and produced almonds. Numbers 17:8.

This was the sign that that tribe had been chosen for the priesthood; for charity was meant by that tribe, 3875, 3877, 4497, 4502, 4503, and charity is the essential characteristic of the spiritual Church.

Footnotes:

1. literally, Well have you done in seeing

2. The Latin means tribe but the Hebrew means house.

3. literally, flower

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