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 #3624

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3624. THE CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GRAND MAN, WHICH IS HEAVEN, OF ALL THE ORGANS AND LIMBS, BOTH INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR, OF THE HUMAN BEING

Let me now tell of and describe marvels which, so far as I know, have not as yet been known to anyone, nor has even the idea of them entered anyone's head - the marvel that the whole of heaven has been formed in such a way that it corresponds to the Lord, to His Divine Human; also the marvel that the human being has been formed in such a way that every single part of him corresponds to heaven, and through heaven to the Lord. This is a great mystery which is now to be revealed, it being the subject here and at the ends of chapters that follow this.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4667

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4667. 'Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan' means the Lord's Divine Natural, which existed in accord with and beneath Divine Rational Good. This is clear from the meaning of 'dwelling' as living, dealt with in 1293, 3384, 3613, 4451; from the representation of 'Jacob' in the highest sense as the Lord's Divine Natural, dealt with in 3305, 3509, 3525, 3544, 3576, 3599, 3775, 4009, 4234, 4286, 4538, 4570; from the representation of Isaac, to whom 'father' refers here, as the Lord's Divine Rational as regards good, dealt with in 1893, 2066, 2630, 3012, 3194, 3210; and from the meaning of 'the land of Canaan' in the highest sense as the Lord's Divine Human, dealt with in 3038, 3705. From all this one may now see that 'Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan' means the Lord's Divine Natural living together with, or in accord with and beneath, Divine Rational Good, within the Divine Human. The fact that the Lord's Natural now had everything Divine within it has been dealt with already at Chapter 35:22-26, see 4602-4610; and the fact that the Lord's Divine Natural was joined to His Divine Rational, at verses 27-29 of that same chapter, see 4611-4619. What is said now forms a conclusion, namely that the Divine Natural led a life in accord with and beneath Divine Rational Good.

[2] The phrase 'beneath Divine Rational Good' is used because the Natural lives beneath that Good. For the Rational is higher or more internal - or prior, to use the customary expression - whereas the Natural is lower or more external, and therefore posterior. Thus the Natural is subordinate to the Rational; indeed when they accord with each other the Natural is nothing else than the general outline of the Rational, for whatever the Natural possesses does not belong to it but to the Rational, the only difference between the two being like that between particular aspects and their general outline, or like that between individual details and the form in which those details are seen as a single whole. It is well known to the learned that the end in view constitutes the whole within the cause, and the cause the whole within the effect so that the cause is the outward form given to the end, and the effect the outward form given to the cause. Consequently the effect altogether ceases to exist if you take away the cause, and the cause altogether ceases to exist if you take away the end. Also, the cause comes beneath the end, and the effect beneath the cause. The relationship between the Natural and the Rational is similar to all this.

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