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 #478

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478. The reason he is called Adam is that the Hebrew word Adam means man. But the fact that Adam was never used as a proper name, only Man, is quite clear from the consideration that both here and earlier he is spoken of in the plural and not in the singular, and that the term refers to both man and woman. The two together are called Man. Anyone may see from these words that both are included, for it is said, 'He called their name Man on the day in which they were created', and similarly in 1:26, 28, 'Let Us make man in Our image, and they will have dominion over the fish of the sea. This shows also that the subject is not about someone who, when created, was the first human being of all, but about the Most Ancient Church.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #20

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20. To the seven churches, signifies to all who are in truths from good or in faith from charity. This is evident from the signification of "seven," as being all [persons]. For "seven," in the Word, signifies the beginning and end, thus an entire period and a full state, in like manner as a "week" (Arcana Coelestia 728, 6508, 9228); and because "seven" signifies what is full, it also signifies all, since all constitutes what is full, for fullness, as regards those that constitute a society (here, the church), means all; therefore when magnitude is treated of in the Word, "seven" signifies what is full; but when multitude is treated of, "seven" signifies all. "Three" also in the Word signifies what is full and all (as may be seen in Arcana Coelestia 2788[1-13], 4495, 7715); but "seven" is used in the Word where anything holy is treated of, and "three" in all other cases (Arcana Coelestia 10127); therefore "seven" is here used, because truths from good, which are the holy things of the church, are treated of. It is also evident from the signification of "churches" as being those who are in truths from good, or in faith from charity.

These are meant by "churches," because such truths constitute the church with everyone; for those who are not in truths from good, though born within the church, yet are not of the church, because there is no church in them. From this it is that the Lord's church consists of all those, wheresoever they are, who are a church, that is, who are in truths from good. (That the church, like heaven, is in man, and not outside of him, consequently that man who is in truths from good is a church, see Arcana Coelestia 3884; and in the work on Heaven and Hell 53, 54, 57.)

It is also said, who are in faith from charity, since this is similar; for truth is of faith, and good is of charity; for in fact, everything that man believes is called truth, and everything that man loves is called good.

(That every truth is from good, and that everything of faith is from charity, see in the small work, The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 84-107, 108-122; and Last Judgement (n. 33-39; also Heaven and Hell 364, 424, 482, 526.)

He who knows nothing of the internal sense of the Word, when he reads these things believes no otherwise than that by "seven churches" are meant the seven churches afterwards named (verse 1:11); whereas churches are not meant, but all who are of the church; because this is the spiritual sense of the Word.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.