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 #4

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4. As long as the mind confines itself to the sense of the letter alone one cannot possibly see that its contents are such. Take for instance these first sections of Genesis: From the sense of the letter the only subject matter people recognize is the creation of the world, and the Garden of Eden which is called Paradise, and Adam as the first man to be created. Who thinks anything different? The fact that these things contain arcana however which have never been revealed up to now will be sufficiently clear from what follows - especially clear from the fact that the subject of Genesis 1 is, in the internal sense, the NEW CREATION of man, that is, in general his REGENERATION, and in particular the Most Ancient Church. And the subject is presented in such a way that not the smallest part of any expression fails to have a representation, carry a spiritual meaning, or embody something within itself.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1984

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1984. Few can believe that within the Word there is an internal sense which does not show itself at all in the letter. They cannot do so because it is as remote from the sense of the letter as so to speak heaven from earth. But it is clear from what has been stated in various places in Volume One that the sense of the letter contains such things within itself, and represents and means arcana which nobody sees except the Lord and the angels, who see them from Him. The relationship of the sense of the letter to the internal sense is like that of man's body to his soul. While a person is in the body and thinks from bodily things he knows hardly anything of the soul, for the body's functions are different from those of the soul, so different that if the soul's functions were disclosed they would not be acknowledged as such. It is similar with the inward part of the Word. Present there is its soul, that is, its life; and that inward part has no regard to anything except the Lord, His Kingdom, the Church, and those things with man which belong to His Kingdom and Church. And when the regard is to these it is the Word of the Lord, for in that case they have life itself within them. That this is how it is with the Word has been confirmed extensively in Volume One, and is something which I have been allowed to have definite knowledge of. For no ideas concerning bodily and worldly things can possibly come across to angels, but are cast aside and totally removed at the threshold while leaving man, as may be seen from experience itself presented in Volume One, 1769-1772 inclusive; and how they are altered, in 1872-1876.

[2] This is also quite clear from very many statements in the Word which are by no means intelligible in the sense of the letter, and which, if they did not possess that soul or life within them, would not be acknowledged to be the Word of the Lord. Nor would they be seen to be Divine to anyone who has not been trained from infancy to believe that the Word is inspired and so is holy. Who from the sense of the letter would know of the meaning of those statements in Genesis 49 which Jacob made to his sons before he died?

Dan will be a serpent on the road, an asp on the path, biting the horse's heels, and its rider will fall backwards. Verse 17.

A troop will plunder Gad, and he will plunder the heel. Verse 19.

Naphtali is a hind let loose, giving beautiful words. Verse 21.

Judah will bind to the vine his ass's foal and to the choice vine his she-ass's colt. He will wash his garment in wine and his clothing in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be redder than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk. Verses 11-12.

Very many places in the Prophets contain similar statements. But what these words mean is not at all evident except in the internal sense in which every single detail links together in a very lovely order.

[3] What the Lord declared in Matthew about the last times is similar,

At the close of the age the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. Matthew 24:29-30.

These words do not mean at all the darkening of the sun and the moon, or the falling of the stars from the sky, or the mourning of tribes. Instead they mean that charity and faith - sun and moon in the internal sense - are going to be darkened in this fashion. They mean that the cognitions of good and truth - 'the stars' which are here called 'the powers of the heavens' - are going to fall away and disappear. And they mean all things of faith, which are 'the tribes of the earth', as has also been shown in Volume One, in 31, 32, 1053, 1529-1531, 1808.

These few observations now show what the internal sense of the Word is and also that it is remote, in some places very remote, from the sense of the letter. Yet be that as it may, the sense of the letter represents truths, and also sets forth appearances of truth for a person to see by when he does not see by the light of truth.

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