The Bible

 

Genesis 1

Study

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 #480

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480. It is clear from Genesis 1:26-27 as well, that 'they were called Man on the day in which they were created', that is to say, at the end of the sixth day, which answers to the evening of the Sabbath, or start of the Sabbath or seventh day. For as shown already, the seventh day or Sabbath is the celestial man.

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

Commentary

 

Adam

  
The Creation of Adam, by Jan Breughel (II)

In a general sense, then, Adam represents the Most Ancient Church. In specific, when named as an individual, he represents that church as it first began turning away from the Lord. In both senses, though, his story is spiritual history, not natural history. Adam is a figurative character, not an actual individual human being.

The word "adam" is Hebrew for "man" or "humankind," and it is consistently translated that way in the first chapter of Genesis. In fact, in that chapter "adam" is plural, and includes men and women: "So God created man (adam) in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Genesis 1:27, quoted from the King James Version of the Bible). Yet in later chapters – even including the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:38 – "Adam" is used as a name, and seems to refer to a specific person.

The first ripple in the relationship between God and humanity came as people began wanting a greater sense of life as their own, as they began to want to feel their love and wisdom as their own instead of things flowing in from God. The Lord gave them the power to feel as they wanted to, which is represented by the rib taken from the "man" Adam and formed into the "woman" Eve. This would, of course, lead to the downfall of humanity; because of that sense of self, people were drawn to the power of their own senses and their own minds – the serpent – instead of trusting the Lord. The Writings say the switch from "man" to "Adam" represents the change made in people when the Lord allowed them to have that sense of self. So what does this mean? The Writings tell us that the "man" created in Genesis represents the Most Ancient Church, which was the first church among early humans and was the purest ever to grace the earth. People of the church were motivated purely by the love of the Lord, and lived in peace, harmony, mutual love and inexpressible wisdom. This follows from the idea that the Lord is the one true human – and is, in fact, humanity itself. Since the Most Ancients were so close to the Lord, they are represented by "adam" in its meaning of "man" or "humankind." The common interpretation is that Genesis 1:26-28 is a general statement of the creation of people, and that the specifics of that creation are laid out in the next chapter when God first creates the man Adam and the woman Eve. But linguistically "adam" in the second chapter is the same as "adam" in the first chapter. In fact, while the King James Version of the Bible switches from "man" to "Adam" midway through the second chapter (Genesis 2:19), Young's Literal Translation – created to be as close to the original language as possible – does not use "Adam" as a named person until Genesis 4:25, long after the Garden of Eden. Eve, meanwhile, is simply "the woman" in all translations until Genesis 3:20, which is after she and Adam have eaten the forbidden fruit and been expelled from the Garden. Adam is one of the most crucial and most controversial figures in the Bible, dividing even the faithful into camps: those who believe he literally existed, created by God as the first human; and those who believe he is a figurative character, embodying spiritual and moral lessons but not an actual person.

In Genesis 2:19, Also that man was made from the ground, or from the non-man, by regeneration. (Arcana Coelestia 478, Arcana Coelestia 64, 313)

In Genesis 3:17, Adam's expulsion from Eden signifies the condemnation of those called Adam and Eve, the former of their intellectual part, the latter of their voluntary or will: in short of both degrees of their selfhood or proprium. Proprium is defined as "the love of self, and the derivative conceit of self-intelligence." (Doctrine Regarding Sacred Scripture 60, Divine Providence 313)