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 #62

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62. The stages and states of the regeneration of man - both of mankind and of the individual person - divide into six and are called the days of his creation. Gradually from being no man at all, he first becomes something, though only little, then something more, until the sixth day is reached, when he becomes 'an image'.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4977

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4977. 'And he put him in charge over his house' means that this good applied itself to that factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of his 'lord', who put him in charge, as good, dealt with above in 4977, and from the meaning of 'putting him in charge over his house' as applying itself to it - to factual knowledge or natural truth. This meaning is evident from what follows, where it says that 'whatever he had he gave into his hand', meaning that all belonging to that good was seemingly subject to the other's power and control. For good is the lord and truth its minister, and when it says that the lord put the minister in charge, that is, that good put truth in charge, the meaning in the internal sense is not that the lordship ceased to rest with that good but that it applied itself to the truth. For in the internal sense one perceives what a thing really is, whereas the sense of the letter presents it in the form of an appearance. The lordship always rests with good, but good applies itself so that truth may be joined to it.

[2] While a person is governed by truth, as happens before he has been regenerated, he knows scarcely anything at all about good. For truth flows in by an external route, or that of the senses, whereas good flows in by an internal route. Before he has been regenerated a person is aware of that which flows in by the external route, but not of that which comes by the internal one. Consequently unless in that state which comes first the lordship seemed to be given to truth, that is, unless good applied itself to it, that truth could never become attached to this good as its own. This is the same factor as has been presented many times before - that truth seemingly occupies the first place, that is, it is so to speak the lord, while a person is being regenerated, but that good plainly occupies the first place and is the lord once he has been regenerated, for which see 3539, 3548, 3556, 3563, 3570, 3576, 3607, 3701, 4925, 4926, 4928, 4930.

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