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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Revealed #360

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360. Of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand were sealed. This symbolizes a doctrine of goodness and truth in those people who will be part of the New Heaven and of the Lord's New Church.

In the highest sense Joseph symbolizes the Lord in respect to His Divinity on the spiritual plane; in the spiritual sense, the spiritual kingdom; and in the natural sense, reproduction and multiplication. Here, however, Joseph symbolizes the doctrine of goodness and truth that is found in people who are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom. Joseph has this symbolism here because he is named after the tribe of Zebulun and before the tribe of Benjamin, thus in between them, and the tribe mentioned first in a series or group symbolizes some love pertaining to the will; the tribe mentioned after that symbolizes some aspect of wisdom pertaining to the intellect; and the tribe mentioned last symbolizes some useful outcome or effect resulting from them. Every series is thus a complete one.

Since Joseph symbolized the Lord's spiritual kingdom, therefore He was made ruler in Egypt (Genesis 41:38-44, Psalms 105:17-22), where every particular has a symbolic meaning that has to do with the Lord's spiritual kingdom.

The spiritual kingdom is the Lord's royal one, while the celestial kingdom is His priestly one.

[2] Joseph here symbolizes a doctrine of goodness and truth because he is substituted here for Ephraim, and Ephraim symbolizes the intellectual component of the church (see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Sacred Scripture 79), the intellectual component of the church being everything derived from the doctrine of goodness and truth drawn from the Word.

Joseph is substituted here for Ephraim because Manasseh, Joseph's second son, who symbolized the volitional component of the church, was already included among the tribes (no. 355).

Because the intellectual component of the church is derived from a doctrine of goodness and truth, therefore Joseph symbolizes this intellectual component and also that doctrine in the following places:

Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring... His bow remained in strength... (He will be blessed) with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath... (Genesis 49:22-26)

The spring symbolizes the Word, and the bow doctrine (no. 299).

Blessed of Jehovah is (Joseph's) land, with the precious things of heaven, with the dew, and the deep lying beneath, and with the precious fruits of the sun, with the precious produce of the months, and... with the precious things of the earth and its fullness... Let it come on the head of Joseph... (Deuteronomy 33:13-17)

The precious things symbolize concepts of goodness and truth, from which comes doctrine.

...who drink from goblets of wine, and... are not grieved over the shattering of Joseph. (Amos 6:6)

I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph... (Hence) they shall be like mighty Ephraim, and their heart shall rejoice as if with wine. (Zechariah 10:6-7)

Here, too, Joseph stands for doctrine, the wine symbolizing its truth springing from goodness (no. 316).

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Deuteronomy 33:13

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13 And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath,