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

 

Six

  

Like most numbers in the Bible, "six" can have various meanings depending on context, but has a couple that are primary. When used in relation to time -- six days, six hours, six years, etc. -- six generally represents a state of labor, struggle and conflict, especially the conflict involved with spiritual growth. The six days of creation, for instance, represent the stages we go through in our lives, working toward the peaceful seventh day, in which our evil desires are removed from us and we can rest. In most other references, six represents all desires for good and all the true ideas that come from those desires for good -- or in the contrary sense, all evil and all the resulting false thinking.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #68

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68. And his eyes were as a flame of fire. That this signifies Divine providence from His Divine love, is evident from the signification of eyes, as denoting the understanding (concerning which see above, n. 37), and when said of the Lord, as denoting presence, and thence providence (see Arcana Coelestia 3869, 10569); concerning which more will be said in what follows; and from the signification of a flame of fire, when said of the Lord, as denoting Divine love. The reason why a flame of fire denotes the Divine love is, that the Lord appears from heaven as a Sun, and the Divine which proceeds from Him as light, flame-coloured in the inmost or third heaven, and shining white in the middle or second heaven; the Divine love itself is what thus appears. For this reason fire and flame in the Word signify love. (As may be evident from what is shown in Arcana Coelestia, viz., that fire in the Word signifies love in each sense, n. 934, 4906, 5215. That sacred and heavenly fire is Divine love, and every affection which belongs to that love, see n. 934, 6314, 6832. That there are two origins of heat, one from the sun of the world, by virtue of which all things upon the earth vegetate, the other from the Sun of heaven, which is the Lord, from which angels and men derive all that pertains to their life, see n. 3338, 5215, 7324. That love is the fire of life, and that life itself is actually therefrom, see n. 4906, 5071, 6032, 6314. That flame is truth from the good of the inmost heaven, and light truth from the good of the middle heaven, see n. 3222, 6832; the reason is, that light in the inmost heaven appears as flaming, and in the middle heaven, shining white, see n. 9570; and also in the work, Heaven and Hell 116-140.) The reason why eyes, when said of the Lord, signify Divine providence, is, because when said of man, they signify understanding; and the Divine understanding, because it is infinite, is Divine providence. Nothing else is signified by the eyes of Jehovah, in the following passage in Isaiah:

"Incline thine ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open thine eyes, O Jehovah, and see" (37:17).

In Jeremiah:

"I will set mine eye upon them for good, and I will bring them back upon this land, and I will build them" (24:6).

And in David:

"Behold the eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear him" (Psalms 33:18);

and in the same:

"Jehovah is in the temple of his holiness, his eyes behold, and his eyelids prove the sons of man" (Psalms 11:4.);

and in other places. (Concerning the Divine providence, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 267-279.)

  
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Translation by Isaiah Tansley. Many thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.