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

 

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 #553

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553. And upon their heads as it were crowns like gold, signifies that they seem to themselves, when they reason, as if they were wise and victorious. This is evident from the signification of "head" as being wisdom and intelligence (of which presently); and from the signification of "a crown of gold," as being a reward of victory (of which above, n. 358. "A crown like gold," signifies the reward of victory, because kings in ancient times, when they were in combats with their enemies wore crowns of gold upon their heads, besides various insignia that then belonged to kings. This was because kings represented the Lord in relation to Divine truth, and Divine truth combats from Divine good; so this was represented by "a crown of gold," and wisdom and intelligence itself by the head upon which was the crown. This is why the martyrs had crowns, for they fought from Divine truth against the falsities from evil that are from hell, and came off victors, because they fought even unto death, which they did not fear. From this it can be seen that "upon their heads as it were crowns like gold" signifies that those who are sensual men seem to themselves, from the persuasion of the falsity in which they are, to be wise and victorious.

[2] As the locusts are described in respect to their heads, their faces, their breasts upon which were breast plates, and as to their tails, and hair, and teeth, it is important to know what their heads signify, and afterwards what the other things signify. The "head" signifies in the Word wisdom and intelligence, because these have their seat in the head; but when those who are in no wisdom or intelligence because they are in falsities from evil are treated of, the "head" signifies folly and insanity, because falsities and evils are therein and therefrom. So here, where those who are sensual and in the persuasion of falsity are treated of, the "head" properly signifies folly and insanity, for such see falsities as truths and evils as goods, for they constantly see what they see from fallacies. Of such, therefore, it is said that "upon their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces as men's faces," and other things follow, all of which were appearances from the fantasy with them, therefore it is said "as it were" crowns, and "like" gold, which shows that these appearances were not real but fallacious. For in the heavens all appearances that exist are real, because they are correspondences; for the interiors belonging to the affections and thoughts therefrom of the angels, when they pass to the sight of their eyes, are clothed in such forms as are manifest in the heavens; they are called appearances because they are visible, and they are said to be correspondences and are real because they spring from creation. But it is otherwise with the appearances in some of the hells, where those are who are in the persuasions of falsity from evil; from these persuasions fantastic visions spring, in which there is inwardly nothing real, and for this reason they also vanish if a single ray from the light of heaven flows in. Such are the appearances that are here described in reference to the "locusts." (But of appearances in the spiritual world, both those that are real and those that are not real, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 170-176; and above, in the explanation, n. 369, 395)

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.