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 #764

Study this Passage

  
/ 1232  
  

764. 1 That he might cause her to be swallowed up by the river, signifies in order that the Church might be blinded and dissipated by the ratiocinations. This follows from the meaning of "river," namely, ratiocinations, as said just above, and from the meaning of "to cause to be swallowed up," and "to swallow up," in that it is "to destroy." This is to be blinded and dissipated because to destroy by ratiocinations from falsities is understood. And he who perishes from falsities, is first blinded so that he does not see truths. And when truths are no longer seen, the Church with him is dispersed as well. For the Church is the Church from truths.

Footnotes:

1. All printed versions of Apocalypse Explained note that the explanation for this portion of verse 15 in Revelation 12 is missing from the manuscript. This note is correct in that this explanation is omitted from Swedenborg's final draft but it is not true that Swedenborg never wrote the explanation of these words.

The first draft of Apocalypse Explained was only first reproduced in 1916. This means that none of the published editions were able to take into account the information contained in it. Both the English and the Latin editions published by the Swedenborg Foundation take the one sentence explanation of the internal sense in number 762 and add it in brackets as 763 1/2. 764, then, is the explanation of verse 16. There is no number 765 in Swedenborg's final draft and 766 explains verse 17. Comparing this to the first draft, it becomes clear what happened: When recopying, Swedenborg simply skipped over his original 764 and put this number instead on what had been 765 in the first draft. Coming to the end of this number he saw that the next was 766 and resumed numbering the final draft as he had the first. All this probably took place without Swedenborg being aware of what he was doing. The original 764 stands intact in the first draft. It is of special interest because it is the only place in the Writings where the last part of Revelation 12:15 is specifically explained (Apocalypse Revealed 562 and Arcana Coelestia 7293[5], both of which explain verse 15, do not really say anything about the last part).

Number 764 of the present published editions should be 765, and has been changed to that in NewSearch98. [Research and footnote provided by the Rev. Stephen D. Cole.]

  
/ 1232  
  

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