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

 

Conjugial Love #340

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340. 7. The Israelite nation was permitted to take more than one wife because in it the Christian Church did not exist, and so neither was truly conjugial love possible. There are people today who waver in thought regarding the institution of monogamous marriages, or marriages of one man with one wife, and who debate with themselves over the reason, thinking that because polygamous marriages were openly permitted to the Israelite nation and to its kings, such as David and Solomon, polygamy might in itself be permissible for Christians, too. But they know nothing of the differences between the Israelite nation and Christianity, and between external and internal elements of the church, nor of the transformation of the church by the Lord from an external one into an internal one. Consequently they know nothing from any interior judgment concerning marriages.

It must be understood in general that a person is born natural and becomes spiritual, and that as long as he remains natural, he is, so to speak, in the dark of night and as though in a state of sleep with respect to spiritual things. In that state he is not aware even that there is a difference between the external, natural person and the internal, spiritual one.

[2] We say that the Christian Church did not exist in the Israelite nation, and this we know from the Word. For then, as they continue to do still, they awaited a Messiah who would raise them up over all other nations and peoples in the world. Consequently if they had been told, and if they were told now, that the Messiah's kingdom is over the heavens and therefore includes all nations, they would have regarded it as nonsense. So it was that, when the Christ or Messiah - our Lord - made His advent into the world, they not only did not acknowledge Him, but even removed Him from the world in a horrifying way. It is plain from this that the Christian Church did not exist in that nation, as it still does not to this day. And people in whom the Christian Church does not exist are outwardly and inwardly natural. Thus polygamy is not held against them, inasmuch as it is engraved on the natural man; for the natural man in thinking of love in marriage perceives only such things as have to do with lust. This is the meaning of the Lord's statement, that Moses, because of the hardness of their hearts, permitted them to divorce their wives, but that from the beginning it was not so (Matthew 19:8). He says Moses permitted it, to make known that it was not the Lord.

[3] The Lord directed His teaching to the internal, spiritual self, as we know from His precepts and from His abrogation of rituals which served a useful purpose only in the case of natural men. Thus His precepts concerning washing, that it is a purification of the inner self (Matthew 15:1-2,17-20; 23:25-26; Mark 7:14-23); concerning adultery, that it is a lust of the will (Matthew 5:28); concerning the divorcing of wives, that it is not lawful, and concerning polygamy, that it is not in accord with Divine law (Matthew 19:3-9).

The Lord taught these and many other precepts having to do with the internal and spiritual self, because He alone opens the inner elements of human minds and makes them spiritual, and implants them then in the natural elements so that they, too, take on a spiritual essence. This also is what happens if people go to the Lord and live according to His commandments. His commandments in sum are to believe in Him and refrain from evils because they are of the devil and from the devil; also to do good things because they are of the Lord and from the Lord; and to do both the one and the other as though on one's own and at the same believe they are done through one by the Lord.

[4] As to why the Lord alone opens the internal, spiritual self and implants this in the external, natural self, the essential reason is that every person thinks and acts on the natural plane, and it is impossible for him therefore to grasp anything spiritual and receive it into his natural self except in consequence of God's having assumed a natural humanity and made it also Divine.

From this now the truth appears, that the Israelite nation was permitted to take more than one wife because in it the Christian Church did not exist.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Matthew 19:4

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4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,