The Bible

 

Genesis 1

Study

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

 

Land

  

'Land' in the Word, denotes the church, for the things which signify the church also signify the things relating to the church, for these constitute the church. The reason why 'land' denotes the church in the Word is because the land of Canaan was the land in which the church had been since the most ancient times. Hence, when 'land' is named in the Word, it means the land of Canaan, which then means the church. For when the expression 'the land' appears there, people in the spiritual world do not concern themselves with the idea of a land, only with the idea of the nation inhabiting it. And yet not with an idea of that nation but with an idea of the essential nature of it.

'Land' or 'earth,' as in Genesis 20:15, signifies the doctrine of love and charity.

'Land' signifies the celestial principle of love in Genesis 24:4.

In Genesis 26:12, 'land' signifies rational things.

In Genesis 28:13, this signifies the good of the natural.

The 'land' represents the divine of the rational principle in Genesis 30:25.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 5577)


From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2261

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2261. 'If I find in Sodom fifty righteous persons in the midst of the city' means if truths are full of goods. This is clear from the meaning of 'fifty' as that which is full, and from the meaning of 'the midst of the city' as that which is present inwardly, or within truth, dealt with above in 2252, which see since the same words occur there. It may be assumed that a person is certain to be saved if truths are full of goods. But it should be recognized that very few truths exist with man; and if they do, that they have no life unless there are goods within them; and if they have goods within them, that he is saved, but on account of mercy. For as has been stated, very few truths reside with a person, and the goods contained within them receive their character from the truths and from that person's life.

[2] Regarded in themselves truths do not confer life; but goods do so. Truths are simply the recipients of life, that is, of good. Nobody is ever able to say therefore that he can be saved by means of truths or as is commonly asserted, by faith alone - not, that is, unless within the truths, which are part of the faith, good is present. And this good which must exist within them must be the good that flows from charity. This explains why in the internal sense faith itself is nothing else than charity, as shown above in 2231. When people say that the acknowledgement of truth is the faith that saves, it should be recognized that no acknowledgement can possibly exist with people who lead lives immersed in things contrary to charity, only some kind of persuasion which has the life of self-love or of the love of the world allied to it, so that the acknowledgement which they speak of does not have within it the life of the faith which is that of charity. The worst people of all, acting from self-love or from love of the world, that is, acting for the sake of excelling others in what are called intelligence and wisdom, and so acting for the sake of earning exalted positions, reputation, and gain, have the ability to grasp the truths of faith and to confirm them in many ways; but with them those truths are nevertheless dead. The life of truth and so of faith comes solely from the Lord, who is Life itself.

[3] The Lord's life is mercy, which is that of love towards the whole human race. Those people cannot possibly be drawing on the life that is the Lord's who, although they profess the truths of faith, despise others in comparison with themselves, and who, where their self-love and love of the world are affected, harbour hatred towards the neighbour and are delighted when he experiences loss of wealth, position, reputation, and life. But the position with the truths of faith is that it is by means of them that one is regenerated, for they are the actual vessels for receiving good. As are the truths therefore, also the goods within those truths, and the combination of those truths and goods and from this their capacity to be perfected in the next life, so is the state of blessedness and happiness of that person after death.

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