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 #5157

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5157. 'And the birds will eat your flesh from upon you' means that falsity originating in evil will consume every one of those sensory impressions. This is clear from the meaning of 'eating' as consuming, dealt with above in 5149; from the meaning of 'the birds' as falsity, also dealt with above in 5149; from the meaning of 'flesh' as good, dealt with in 3812, 3813, and therefore in the contrary sense as evil (for most things in the Word also have a contrary sense, which is discerned from their meaning in the genuine sense); and from the meaning of 'from upon you as from the sensory impressions subject to the will part, since those impressions are represented by 'the baker', 5078, 5082. The fact that these were evil and had therefore to be cast aside is clear from what has gone before.

[2] The significance of all this - that the sensory impressions subject to the understanding part, which are represented by 'the cupbearer', were retained, whereas those subject to the will part, which are represented by 'the baker', were cast aside - is an arcanum that is completely unintelligible unless it has light shed on it. Let the following serve to shed some such light. By sensory impressions are meant those known facts and those delights which have been introduced through the five external or bodily senses into a person's memory and into his longings, and which together constitute the exterior natural, by virtue of which a person is called one governed by the senses. The facts are subject to the understanding part of his mind, whereas the delights are subject to the will part. Also, the facts link up with the truths which belong to the understanding, while the delights link up with the forms of good which belong to the will. The former are represented by 'the cupbearer' and were retained, but the latter are represented by 'the baker' and were cast aside.

[3] The reason those known facts were retained is that in time they were able to accord with ideas in the understanding; but the reason the delights were cast aside is that they were by no means able to accord with what was in the will. For the will within the Lord, who is the subject in the highest internal sense, was from conception Divine and was the Divine Good itself; but the will received through His birth from His mother was evil and therefore had to be cast aside, and a new will had to be acquired in place of it. This new will was to be acquired from the Divine Will through the [Divine] Understanding, that is, from Divine Good through Divine Truth, and so was acquired by His own power. This is the arcanum which is described here in the internal sense.

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