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

 

Grass

  

'Grass' is natural truth, and 'flower of the field' is spiritual truth, as in Isaiah 40:5, 6. Green grass, in the Word, signifies the good and truth of the church, and of faith, which first springs up in the natural man. This is also signified by 'herb in the field.' Grass and the pulse of the herb, as in Psalm 32:2, signify what is most vile. Grass signifies science from a spiritual origin, or that by which spiritual truth is confirmed. 'Reeds and rushes' signify science from a sensory origin, or the things which confirm the fallacies of the senses, as in Isaiah 25:7. This science, considered in itself, is only a part of the lowest natural degree, which may be justly called material and bodily, in which there is little or no life. Green grass also signifies that which is alive with man. 'Grass burnt up' signifies the things which are dead in him. Grass signifies the scientific principle. Just as green grass serves animals for support, spiritual truth serves men for spiritual nourishment.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 507; Isaiah 7, 25; Psalms 2, 32)


From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8994

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8994. 'She shall not go out as the male slaves do' means a state unlike truth devoid of affection. This is clear from the meaning of 'going out' - out of servitude - as a state after conflict or labour, dealt with above in 8980, 8984; and from the meaning of 'the male slaves' as those imbued with truths and not complementary good, dealt with in 8974, thus those imbued with truth devoid of affection. From all this it is evident that 'she shall not go out as the male slaves do' means a state unlike truth devoid of affection.

[2] The implications of this must be stated briefly. There are those who are imbued with truth and no affection for it, and there are those who are imbued with an affection. The former were represented by male slaves from the children of Israel, the latter by female slaves, also from the children of Israel. But 'female slaves' did not represent those with a genuine affection for truth, only those with an affection that is not genuine, as may be seen from what has been shown immediately above in 8993.

[3] The difference between those imbued with truth devoid of affection, who were represented by the male slaves, and those imbued with an affection for truth, who were represented by the female slaves, is akin to the difference between knowing truth and willing truth. Knowing truth belongs solely to the understanding part of the mind, whereas willing truth belongs to the will part; consequently the difference is akin to that between knowledge and affection. Those imbued with a knowledge of truth and good, meant by male slaves or the men in the representative sense, have no affection for truth and good, only for the knowledge of them; consequently they are delighted with truths for the sake of knowing them. But those imbued with an affection for truth and good, meant by female slaves or the women in the representative sense, have no affection for the knowledge of truth and good, only for truths and forms of good themselves, as they hear and perceive them from others. This kind of affection exists generally with good women, but the affection for knowledge of truth exists generally with men.

[4] So it is that those who are spiritually perceptive have a liking for women with an affection for truths, but not for women who concentrate on gaining knowledge. For it is in keeping with Divine order for men to know things and for women purely to have an affection for them, so the women do not love themselves because of their knowledge but love men; and from this springs the desire for marriage. This also is why those of old said that women must keep silent in the Church. All this being so, factual and religious knowledge are represented by men, but affections by women; at this point affection for truth that pours out of the delights belonging to natural kinds of love is represented by female slaves. And because people with this kind of affection are of an entirely different disposition from those with an affection for knowledge, the situation with female slaves is entirely different from that with male slaves. So this is what is meant by 'a female slave shall not go out as the male slaves do'. It should be recognized however that this is the situation among those who belong to the Lord's spiritual kingdom, whereas among those who belong to His celestial kingdom the reverse applies. There husbands are the ones with affection, and wives are the ones with knowledge of good and truth; and this is what the desire for marriage springs from among them.

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