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

 

Resurrection, the first

  

'The first resurrection,' mentioned in Revelation 20:5, 6, does not mean a first resurrection, but the essence and primary part of resurrection, which is salvation and eternal life. There is only one resurrection to life. A second does not happen, and is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 6; Apocalypse Revealed 851; Revelation 20:5-6)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #1071

Study this Passage

  
/ 1232  
  

1071. (Verse 13) These have one mind, and shall deliver up their power and authority to the beast. That this signifies agreement that the Word is the Divine truth, on which the church as to its doctrine must depend, is evident from the signification of having one mind, as denoting agreement; and from the signification of delivering up their power and authority to the beast, as denoting acknowledgment that the Word is the Divine truth, on which the church as to its doctrine must depend. For by the beast is signified the Word, as may be seen above (n. 1038); and, by delivering up to it power and authority, is signified to acknowledge it as Divine truth, from which is the doctrine of the church.

It was said above that the Gallican church acknowledges the Word as Divine truth, and attributes Divine inspiration to the particulars of the Word, and to the edicts of the Pope not an equal [Divine inspiration] as to those things that are the means of salvation. And also others in Europe; and this has come to pass of the Lord's Divine Providence, lest the Christian Church should be entirely destroyed. The reason is, that by means of the Word man has communication and also conjunction with heaven, and by means of heaven with the Lord; and because no communication and conjunction with heaven and with the Lord can possibly exist by means of the utterances and edicts of the Pope, since they have not for their end the salvation of souls, but domination. And all edicts and statutes which have domination for their end, especially over the things of heaven and the church, have communication, and cause conjunction, with hell. From these things it is evident what is signified by the ten kings who delivered up their power and authority to the beast.

Continuation concerning the Word:-

[2] But because it cannot but transcend the apprehension that the Lord as to the Human in the world was the Word, that is, Divine truth, according to these words in John:

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father" (1:14);

therefore, as far as possible, it shall be again explained to the apprehension. It may be said of every regenerate man that he is his own truth and his own good, because the thought of his understanding is from truths, and the affection of his will from goods. Therefore, whether it is said that a man is his own understanding and his own will, or that a man is his own truth and his own good, it amounts to the same.

[3] The body merely obeys; for it speaks what man thinks from the understanding, and does what he wills from affection. Thus the body and these [things] mutually correspond to each other, and make one, like the effect and its efficient cause; and, taken together, they constitute the Human. As it may be said of the regenerate man, that he is his own truth and his own good, so it may be said of the Lord as Man, that He is Truth itself or Divine truth, and good itself or Divine Good.

From these things, then, the truth becomes clear that the Lord as to His Human in the world was Divine truth, that is, the Word; and that, consequently, everything He said was Divine truth, which is the Word; and that, afterwards, when He went to the Father, that is, when He was made one with the Father, the Divine truth proceeding from Him is the Spirit of Truth, which goes forth and proceeds from Him, and at the same time from the Father in Him.

  
/ 1232  
  

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