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

 

Arcana Coelestia #9815

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9815. 'For glorious adornment' means in order to display Divine Truth as it exists in its inward form and its outward form in the spiritual kingdom lying adjacent to the celestial kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of 'glory' as Divine Truth, dealt with in the Preface to Genesis 18, and in 5922, 9429; and from the meaning of 'adornment' too as Divine Truth, but as it exists in its outward form. For the splendour and beauty of Divine Truth as they appear in outward things are meant by 'adornment'. So it is that the Word as to its internal sense is described as 'glory', but as to its external sense, in respect of the splendour and beauty which the internal imparts to it, is described as 'adornment'. Consequently the spiritual heaven, meant here by the holy garments that were 'for glorious adornment', is the glory, insofar as Divine Truth in its inward form is present there; and it is the adornment too, insofar as Divine Truth in its outward form is also present there.

[2] Something similar is meant by 'adornment' in the following places: In Jeremiah,

In His anger the Lord covers the daughter of Zion with a cloud. He has cast down from heaven to earth the adornment of Israel, and does not remember His footstool. Lamentations 2:1.

'The daughter of Zion' stands for the celestial Church, 'the adornment of Israel' for the spiritual Church, which is called 'the adornment' by virtue of the splendour and beauty of truth. Something similar occurs in Isaiah,

I have caused My righteousness to draw near, it is not far off, and My salvation will not delay. I will give salvation in Zion, My adornment to Israel. Isaiah 46:13.

In the same prophet,

Look out from heaven, from the dwelling-place of Your holiness and of Your adornment. Isaiah 63:15.

'The dwelling-place of holiness' stands for the celestial kingdom, and 'the dwelling-place of adornment' for the spiritual kingdom. In Daniel,

There came out one small-sized horn, and it grew exceedingly towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the adornment. 1 Daniel 8:9.

And elsewhere in the same prophet,

The king of the north too will stand in the land of adornment 1 with destruction in his hand; 2 and when he comes into the land of adornment 1 many will collapse. Daniel 11:16, 41.

'The land of adornment' stands for the Lord's Church where God's truth or the Word is.

Footnotes:

1. i.e. the land of Israel

2. literally, consummation through his hand

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