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 #2500

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2500. 'Abraham travelled from there towards the land of the south' means the Lord's advances in goods and truths of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'travelling' as advancing, dealt with in 1457, and from the meaning of 'the land of the south' as the good and truth of faith, dealt with in 1458. Previously in Chapter 12 it was said of Abraham when entering Egypt that 'he travelled, going on and travelling towards the south', verses 9-10, which meant in the internal sense that the Lord, when a boy, made advances into goods and truths as regards knowledge consisting of cognitions, 1456, 1459. Now in the present chapter it is said that he travelled towards the land of the south, which means further and more interior advances, made this time into goods and truths as regards the doctrine of faith. This is why the expression 'the land of the south' is used here, for 'land' in its proper sense means the Church, for whose sake doctrine exists, 566, 662, 1066, 2117, 2118.

[2] As regards the Lord's instruction in general, the nature of it is quite plain from the internal sense of this chapter. From that sense it is plain that He was taught through a whole succession of revelations and so through Divine perceptions and thoughts from Himself, that is, from His Divine. These perceptions and thoughts He implanted in Divine intelligence and wisdom, and continued to do so until the perfect union of His Human and His Divine had been effected. This way of becoming wise is not at all open to anyone else, for it sprang from the Divine itself, which was His inmost, being the Father's, from whom He had been conceived. Thus it sprang from the Divine Love itself which the Lord alone possessed and which constituted His desire to save the entire human race.

[3] It is an arcanum as yet known by scarcely anyone that love itself holds wisdom and intelligence within it, but that the nature of these is determined by that of the love. The reason wisdom and intelligence exist within love is that all influx takes place into the love, or what amounts to the same, into the good, and so into the life itself of man. This is the source of the wisdom and intelligence possessed by angels, which are beyond description. It is the source also of the wisdom and intelligence possessed by men who are governed by love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour. Although during their lifetime the latter do not discern at all the presence with them of such wisdom and intelligence, they nevertheless enter into these after death for the reason that they exist within love itself and within charity itself, see 2494. As for the Lord's love however, this was infinitely higher than the love which exists in angels, for it was Divine Love itself, and therefore He had within Himself the acme of all wisdom and intelligence. Yet into the possession of this, because He was born a human being (homo) and advanced as a human being does according to Divine order, He entered by successive degrees so that He might in that way unite His Human to the Divine and make it Divine, doing so by His own power.

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