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

 

Arcana Coelestia #10237

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10237. 'For washing' means purification from evils and falsities. This is clear from the meaning of 'washing' as purification from evils and falsities, dealt with in 3147, 5954. Since purification from evils and falsities by means of the truths of faith is the subject in the internal sense of the verses that now follow, what the situation is with purification must be stated briefly. By 'washing' purification is meant, by 'water' the truths of faith are meant, and by 'the laver' containing the water the natural is meant; for all spiritual purification is accomplished within the natural. A person possesses an external and an internal; the external is called the natural and also the natural man, while the internal is called the spiritual and also the spiritual man. They are so called because the person's internal exists in the spiritual world, where spirits and angels are, while his external exists in the natural world, where people are. Both of them, the internal and the external, undergo purification; the internal does so in heaven, and the external in the world while the person is living there, thus within the natural which exists in the world.

[2] The reason why purification takes place within the natural at this time is that the truths of faith within the natural are clearly perceptible; for they exist there among known facts or things in the memory which are perceived clearly when they are brought to mind. It is different however with things that are thought about in the internal man. These do not come to be seen plainly while a person is in the world, because the ideas there are spiritual. This explains why purification is accomplished within the natural. The fact that it is accomplished by means of the truths of faith becomes clear from the consideration that those undergoing purification should not merely know what evil and falsity are but also acknowledge them to be such, and then turn away and flee from them. When this is done the person starts to be purified from them. Evils and falsities cannot be so known or acknowledged except within the natural through the truths of faith, for these teach what they are and so make them plain. The person who believes that he is purified from evils and falsities before seeing and acknowledging those present in himself is very much mistaken, see 8388, 8390ff.

[3] The reason for saying that a person may know his own evils and falsities through the truths of faith within the natural, that is, in the external man, but not in the internal, is that the ideas belonging to thought in the internal man are spiritual, and spiritual ideas cannot be grasped within the natural. This is because they are ideas in the understanding which are unconnected with objects such as exist in the material world. Nevertheless these ideas, that is to say, spiritual ones, which belong properly to the internal man, flow into natural ideas, which belong to the external man; they produce and fashion those natural ideas, doing so by means of correspondences. But more about spiritual ideas belonging to the internal man will in the Lord's Divine mercy be told in a description of heaven and of spirits and angels; 1 for they use spiritual ideas for thinking and also for talking to one another.

10237a. 'And you shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar' means in order that truth and good may be joined together. This is clear from the meaning of 'between the tent of meeting and the altar' as the joining together of truth and good, dealt with in 10001, 10025. The reason why the laver was to be placed between the tent of meeting and the altar, and why Aaron and his sons were to wash their hands and feet there, was in order that purification of the heart and regeneration, which essentially is the joining together of truth and good, might be represented. For truth and good joined together constitute heaven itself with a person. This also is why heaven is compared in the Word to a marriage. That joining together is accomplished by means of the truths of faith, because these teach people the way to lead their life; and therefore when they lead a life in accord with the truths of faith a joining together of truth and good is accomplished. For then truth is transformed into good through the life they lead. The life of truth is goodness. The same thing is meant by the reference to a person's being regenerated by 'water and the spirit', 'water' being the truth of faith, and 'the spirit' its life.

Regeneration is the joining together of truth and good, see 2063, 3155, 3158, 3607, 4353, 5365, 5376, 8516, 8517, 8772, 10067.

Footnotes:

1. This proposal was not fulfilled, but presumably the material mentioned here concerning the heavens appeared in the work published a few years later, in 1758, whose English title is Heaven and Hell.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #7987

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7987. 'Even on this same day it was' means that it was at that very time. This is clear from the meaning of 'day' as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850, 5672, 5962, 7680. 'On this same day' consequently means in that state, and so at that very time, that is to say, when the Lord's Coming took place, meant by 'at the end of the four hundred and thirty years', and the deliverance of those belonging to the spiritual Church, meant by 'all the hosts of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt'.

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