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 #883

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883. 'The dove returned to him at evening time' means that these started to show themselves a little; and 'evening time' is similar to pre-morning twilight. This in like manner becomes clear from that has been stated already at verse 8, and also from the fact that here it is called 'evening time'. Concerning 'evening', see what has been stated in Genesis 1, where six times the statement is made 'there was evening and there was morning'. 'Evening' is a word that has to do with regeneration and indeed with that state when a person is still in near-darkness, or when there is still only a tiny quantity of light showing itself to him. Morning itself is described in verse 13 below by 'he removed the roof from the ark and saw out'. Because 'evening' meant the pre-morning twilight, mention of the evening is made so many times in the Jewish Church. This also is why sabbaths and festivals began from evening onwards, and why Aaron was commanded to light the sacred lamp 'in the evening', Exodus 27:21.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #775

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775. Since there are genera and species to all things, that is to say, to spiritual goods as well as to natural goods, and also to derivative sensory and bodily goods, 'according to its kind' 1 is said of each one. The genera of spiritual goods are so many, and the genera of spiritual truths are in like manner so many, that they cannot possibly be counted up, still less the species making up the genera. In heaven all celestial and spiritual goods and truths are so divided into their own genera, and these in turn into their own species, that the least significant of them is distinct from all the rest. And they are so countless that specific differences may be called unending. These considerations show how impoverished, and almost non-existent, human wisdom is, in that it hardly knows of the existence of spiritual good and truth, let alone what these may be.

[2] It is from celestial and spiritual goods, and truths springing from these, that natural goods and truths come into being and pass down. For no natural good or truth ever exists which has not come into being from spiritual good, and this in turn from celestial good, and which is not kept in being from these same sources. If the spiritual were to withdraw from the natural, the natural would not be anything. With regard to the origin of all things, every single thing comes from the Lord. From Him comes the celestial; by way of the celestial from Him the spiritual comes into being; by way of the spiritual comes the natural; by way of the natural comes that which constitutes the body and the senses. And just as these come into being from the Lord in this way, so in the same way they are kept in being, for as is well known, being kept in being is constant coming into being. People who assume that things arise and come into being in any other way, as those do who worship nature and trace the origin of things back to that, are governed by assumptions so dismal that the delusions of wild animals roaming the forest can be said to contain far more sanity. There are many such persons who seem to themselves to excel everybody else in wisdom.

Footnotes:

1. or its species

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