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 #56

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56. Verse 29 And God said, Behold, I give you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face 1 of the whole earth, and every tree in which there is fruit, the tree producing seed will be for you for food. A celestial man takes delight in none but celestial things, and because these suit his life they are called celestial food. A spiritual man takes delight in spiritual things, and because they suit his life they are called spiritual food. The same applies to a natural man and natural things, and because they suit his life they too are called food, and are chiefly facts. Here, since the subject is the spiritual man, his spiritual food is described by representatives, that is to say, spiritual food is represented by 'the plant yielding seed' and by 'the tree in which there is fruit', which in general are called 'the tree producing seed'. His natural food is described in the next verse.

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 #5115

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5115. 'And it was as though budding' means an influx that allows rebirth to be effected. This is clear from the meaning of 'budding' - that is, bringing forth leaves, and also blossom later on - as the first stage of rebirth. The reason an influx is meant is that when a person is being born again spiritual life flows into him, even as a tree, when it starts to bud, is receiving its life through heat from the sun. The birth of a human being is compared in various places in the Word to members of the vegetable kingdom, especially trees. The reason for this comparison is that the entire vegetable kingdom, like the animal kingdom also, represents the kind of things that exist with the human being, and consequently the kind of things that exist in the Lord's kingdom. For the human being is heaven in its least form, as may be seen from what has been shown at the ends of chapters regarding correspondence of the human being with the Grand Man, which is heaven. This also explains why the ancients referred to man as the microcosm; and if more had been known about the heavenly state they would have called him a miniature heaven too. For the whole natural system is a theatre representative of the Lord's kingdom, see 2758, 3483, 4939.

[2] But in particular it is a person who is being born anew, that is, being regenerated by the Lord, who is called heaven; for during that time Divine good and truth from the Lord, and consequently heaven, are implanted in him. Indeed, like a tree, a person who is being born again begins from a seed, which is why in the Word 'seed' means truth obtained from good. Also, like a tree, he brings forth leaves, then blossom, and finally fruit; for he brings forth the kind of things that belong to intelligence, which again in the Word are meant by 'leaves', then the kind of things that belong to wisdom, which are meant by 'blossoms', and finally the kind of things that are matters of life, namely forms of the good of love and charity expressed in action, which in the Word are meant by 'fruits'. Such is the representative likeness that exists between a fruitful tree and a person who is being regenerated, a likeness so great that one may learn from a tree about regeneration, provided that something is known first of all about spiritual good and truth. From this one may see that 'the vine' in the cupbearer's dream serves to describe fully in a representative fashion the process by which a person is born again so far as the sensory power subject to the understanding part is concerned. That process is described first by the three shoots, then by the buds that were formed, after that by the blossom, followed by the ripening of the clusters into grapes, and finally by his pressing them into Pharaoh's cup and his giving this to him.

[3] Furthermore the dreams which come from the Lord by way of heaven are never anything else than scenes based on representatives. Anyone therefore who does not know what this or that in the natural world represents, more so one who is totally unaware of anything at all being representative there, inevitably supposes that those representatives are merely comparisons such as anybody may use in ordinary conversation. They are indeed comparisons; but they are the kind which are also correspondences and which therefore present themselves as visible objects in the world of spirits while the angels positioned more internally in heaven are talking about spiritual or celestial things belonging to the Lord's kingdom. Regarding dreams, see 1122, 1975, 1977, 1979-1981.

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