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 #41

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41. Anything that is man's own has no life in it; and when depicted visually it looks like something hard as a bone and black. But anything that comes from the Lord does contain life. It has that which is spiritual and celestial within it, and when depicted visually it looks human and alive. It is perhaps incredible, but nevertheless absolutely true, that every expression, every idea, and every least thought of an angelic spirit is alive. In even the most detailed areas of his thought there is an affection that comes from the Lord, who is life itself. Consequently all that derives from the Lord has life within it, for it contains faith in Him, and is here meant by 'a living creature'. It then has the outward appearance of a body, meant here by that which is moving, or creeping. To man these matters remain arcana, but since the subject here is the living and moving creature, they ought at least to be mentioned here.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2571

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2571. 'Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you' means the Lord's perception regarding the doctrine of love and charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as thinking, dealt with in 2506, and from the meaning of 'land' here as the doctrine of love and charity. 'Land' or 'earth' has various meanings in the internal sense, 620, 636, 1066, but what is meant in a specific instance is clear from the train of thought. For 'land' or 'earth' means the external member of the Church when 'the sky' or 'heaven' means the internal, 82, 913, 1411, 1733; it also means the region where the Church is, 662, 1066; it means the Church itself, and also in the universal sense the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth, since 'the land of Canaan' or 'the holy land' was representative of that kingdom, 1437, 1585, 1607. The same was also meant by 'a new heaven and a new earth', 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118. And because 'land' or 'earth' means the member of the Church, the Church, and the Lord's kingdom, it also means that which is the essential component of these, namely love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, for it is on these that they all depend, 537, 540, 547, 553, 2130. Consequently 'land' or 'earth' means the doctrine of love and charity which belongs to the Church, and to which here 'the land of Abimelech' refers. For 'Abimelech as a king' means the doctrine of faith, as has been shown, while his land, from which he sprang and in which he dwelt, means the doctrine of love and charity, from which faith springs and in which faith dwells.

[2] The reason why up to this point the Lord's thought had been concerned with the doctrine of faith but was now concerned with the doctrine of love and charity is that the Lord joined the Human to the Divine by means of truths which are matters of faith, yet at the same time by means of Divine Goods which are matters of love that were present within those truths. This He did according to the order by which also man becomes spiritual and celestial but not Divine so as to have life in himself, in the way that the Lord became so. But when the marriage had taken place in the Lord of Divine Truth to Good, and of Good to Truth, which is meant by the words 'Abimelech restored to Abraham Sarah his wife', 2569, His thought was now concerned with the doctrine of love and charity, and this also was according to order; for once man has become spiritual and celestial he no longer thinks from truth but from good, yet not as the Lord did - from Divine Good united to Divine Truth. This is the reason why the doctrine of love and charity is only now mentioned for the first time, even though the doctrine of faith regarded in itself is the same, and the Lord's perception and thought always sprang from Divine love within every thing of faith. Hence it is that the doctrine of love and charity is Divine doctrine itself, and was the doctrine which was cultivated in the Most Ancient Churches. And because that doctrine made one with the doctrine of faith, they rejected people who separated these; see 2417.

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