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 #5168

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5168. 'As Joseph had interpreted to them' means as foretold by the celestial within the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'interpreting' as stating what the dream holds within itself or what lies within it, and also what was going to take place, dealt with in 5093, 5105, 5107, 5141, and so means a foretelling; and from the representation of 'Joseph' as the celestial within the natural, dealt with in 5086, 5087, 5106. As to what the words used here hold within them - namely the teaching that sensory impressions belonging to the understanding part were retained, whereas those belonging to the will part were cast aside - see above in 5157.

[2] This chapter deals in the internal sense with the subordination of the exterior natural, which has to be made subordinate so that it may serve the interior natural as a mirror for it, see 5165. Indeed unless it is made subordinate, interior forms of truth and good, and consequently interior thoughts possessing what is spiritual and celestial within them, do not have any place where they can be represented, for these manifest themselves so to speak in their own face or so to speak in a mirror. Therefore when no such subordination exists a person cannot possess any interior thought, or indeed any faith, since no ability exists, neither a weak nor a strong one, to grasp such matters, and therefore no discernment exists of them either. Only one thing can make the natural subordinate and bring it into a state of correspondence, and this is good that has innocence within it, a good which in the Word is called charity. Sensory impressions and factual knowledge are merely the means into which that good may flow, to present itself in a visual form and make itself available for every useful purpose it can serve. But even if it consisted of actual truths of faith, factual knowledge that has no good within it would be nothing else than scales amid filth, which fall off.

[3] But as regards the way in which good, relying on factual knowledge and the truths of faith as its means, causes exterior things to be restored to order and to be brought into correspondence with interior ones, this at the present day is less able to be understood than it was in former times. There are many reasons why this is so, the main one being that within the Church at the present day no charity exists any longer. For the final period of the Church has arrived and consequently no affection for knowing such things exists. This being so, a kind of aversion is instantly encountered when anything is mentioned which lies inside of or above sensory evidence, and consequently when anything from among such things as constitute angelic wisdom are expressed. Yet because such matters are contained in the internal sense - for what the internal sense contains is wholly suited to angels' wisdom - and because the internal sense of the Word is now being explained, those matters must be stated, however remote they may seem to be from sensory evidence.

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