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 #39

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39. Verse 20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth creeping things, living creatures; and let birds fly above the earth, upon the face 1 of the expanse of the heavens.

After the great lights have been kindled and lodged in the internal man, from which the external man receives its light, a person starts to live for the first time. Till then he can hardly be said to have lived, for he had imagined that the good he had done he had done from himself, and the truth he had uttered he had spoken from himself. And since man functioning from himself is dead - there being nothing in him that is not evil and false - therefore whatever he brings forth from himself is not living. So true is this that of himself he is incapable of doing any good deed that is in itself good. The fact that man cannot begin to think about good or to will it, and so cannot do good, unless the Lord is the source, is clear to everyone from the doctrine of faith, for the Lord says in Matthew,

He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. Matthew 13:37.

Nor can good come from anywhere else than the one fount itself of all good, as yet again He says,

Nobody is good but one, God. Luke 18:19.

[2] Nevertheless when the Lord is revitalizing a person, or regenerating him, He does allow him, to begin with, to imagine that good and truth originate in himself, for at that point a person cannot grasp anything else, or be led to believe and finally perceive, that all good and truth come from the Lord alone. As long as he held the former opinion his truths and goods were comparable to 'a tender plant', then 'a plant bearing seed', and after that 'a fruit tree', which are inanimate. But once he has been brought to life by love and faith and believes that the Lord is at work in every good deed he does and in every truth he utters, he is compared first to creeping things from the water and to birds which fly above the earth, and then to beasts, all of which are animate and are called 'living creatures'.

Footnotes:

1. literally, the faces

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #6032

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6032. 'And was seen towards him' means perception. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing' as understanding and discerning, dealt with in 2150, 3764, 4567, 4723, 5400, and as having faith, 1315, 1807, 3863, 3869, 4403-4421, 5400. As regards the meaning of 'seeing' as understanding and therefore perceiving, and also as having faith, it should be recognized that a person has two components constituting his life - SPIRITUAL LIGHT and SPIRITUAL HEAT. Spiritual light constitutes the life of his understanding, and spiritual heat the life of his will. By virtue of its very own origin spiritual light is Divine Truth flowing from the Lord's Divine Good and is therefore the truth of faith flowing from the good of charity, while spiritual heat by virtue of its very own origin is the Divine Good of the Lord's Divine Love and is therefore the good of celestial love or love to the Lord and the good of spiritual love or love towards the neighbour. As has been stated, these two constitute the entire life in a person.

[2] As regards spiritual light, this is related to a person's understanding in the way that natural light is related to his external sight. That is to say, so that the eye can function, light must exist which enables it to do so. When it exists the eye beholds in that light everything all round outside itself. The same is true of the intellectual power of the mind, which is a person's inner eye. So that this eye can function the light of heaven flowing from the Lord must exist, enabling it to do so. And when this eye functions with the aid of that light it too beholds things all round outside itself. But the objects it sees are spiritual ones - facts and truths. When however it does not have the aid of that light, a person's intellectual power of the mind or inner eye is like his external or physical eye when this is in darkness and cannot see anything. That is, it does not from factual knowledge behold any truth, or from truth behold any good. The light which enables the intellectual power of the mind to function is light indeed, a kind of light which is a thousand times brighter than midday light in the world, as I can testify since I have beheld it. In that light all the angels in heaven see things all round outside themselves, and in that same light they also behold and perceive the truths of faith and the essential nature of them. This now explains why in the spiritual sense 'seeing' means not only the understanding but also any of its activities, such as cogitation, reflection, observation, circumspection, and many others, as well as meaning not only faith but also anything constituting faith, such as truth, teaching drawn from the Word, and the like.

[3] As regards spiritual heat however, this is related to a person's will in the way natural heat is related to his body, in that the one imparts life to the other. But by virtue of its very origin - an origin that can be traced back to the Lord - spiritual heat is nothing other than Divine Love towards the entire human race and the reciprocation of that love by man, to Him and also towards the neighbour. And that heat is heat indeed; it blesses angels' bodies with warmth and at the same time blesses their inmost beings with love. This is the reason why 'heat', 'flame', and 'fire', when used in the genuine sense in the Word, mean things connected with love, such as affections for goodness and truth, and also goodness itself.

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