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

 

Arcana Coelestia #1807

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1807. 'And he said, Look, now, towards heaven' means a representation of the Lord's kingdom in a mental view of the universe. This is clear from the meaning of 'heaven'. In the internal sense of the Word 'heaven' does not mean the sky that is seen with the eyes but the Lord's kingdom in general and in particular. When a person who regards internal things from external sees the sky he does not think at all of the starry sky but of the angelic heaven. And when he sees the sun, he does not think about the sun but about the Lord's being the Sun of heaven. The same applies when he sees the moon, and also the stars. And so when he sees the boundlessness of the sky he does not think about the boundlessness of this but about the Lord's boundless and infinite power. And the same goes for everything else he sees, for there is nothing that is not representative.

[2] It is the same with the things belonging to the earth. When, for example, such a person sees the dawning of the day he does not think of the dawn but of the rise of all things from the Lord, and of advancement into the daylight of wisdom. Similarly when he sees cultivated gardens, trees, and flowers, his eye is not fixed on any tree and on its blossom, leaf, and fruit, but on the heavenly things which these represent. Nor is it fixed on any flower and its beauty and loveliness but on those things which these represent in the next life. For not one thing of beauty and delight ever exists in the sky above or on earth beneath that is not in some respect representative of the Lord's kingdom; see what has been stated in 1632. Such is the 'looking towards heaven' which means a representation of the Lord's kingdom in a mental view of the universe.

[3] The reason why every single thing in the sky above and on the earth beneath is representative is that it has come into being, and is constantly coming into being, that is, is kept in being, from the influx of the Lord through heaven. It is as it is with the human body, which comes into being and is kept in being by means of its soul, for which reason every single thing in the body is representative of the soul. Inherent in the soul there are use and end in view, but in the body the accomplishment of these. All effects, without exception, are in the same way representatives of the uses which are the causes behind those effects, while the uses are representative of the ends which constitute first beginnings.

[4] People whose concern is for Divine ideas never dwell on the objects of external sight, but from and in those objects they are continually seeing internal things. The most internal things of all are those that constitute the Lord's kingdom, and thus are those which consist in the greatest of all ends. It is similar with the Word of the Lord. The person whose concern is for Divine ideas never regards the Word of the Lord from the letter, but regards the letter and the literal sense as that which represents and means the celestial and spiritual things of the Church and of the Lord's kingdom. To that person the literal sense exists solely as the means which enable him to think about these. Such was the nature of the Lord's sight.

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