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

 

Divine Love and Wisdom #11

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11. God is the essential person. Throughout all the heavens, the only concept of God is a concept of a person. The reason is that heaven, overall and regionally, is in a kind of human form, and Divinity among the angels is what makes heaven. Further, thinking proceeds in keeping with heaven's form, so it is not possible for angels to think about God in any other way. This is why all the people on earth who are in touch with heaven think about God in the same way when they are thinking very deeply, or in their spirit.

It is because God is a person that all angels and spirits are perfectly formed people. This is because of heaven's form, which is the same in its largest and its smallest manifestations. (On heaven being in a human form overall and regionally, see Heaven and Hell 59-87 [59-86], and on thought progressing in keeping with heaven's form, see 203-204 there.)

It is common knowledge that we were created in the image and likeness of God because of Genesis 1:26-27 and from the fact that Abraham and others saw God as a person.

The early people, wise and simple alike, thought of God only as a person. Even when they began to worship many gods, as they did in Athens and Rome, they worshiped them as persons. By way of illustration, here is an excerpt from an earlier booklet.

Non-Christians--especially Africans--who acknowledge and worship one God as the Creator of the universe conceive of that God as a person. They say that no one can have any other concept of God. When they hear that many people prefer an image of God as a little cloud in the center, they ask where these people are; and when they are told that these people are among the Christians, they respond that this is impossible. They are told, however, that Christians get this idea from the fact that in the Word God is called a spirit; and the only concept they have of spirit is of a piece of cloud. They do not realize that every spirit and every angel is a person. However, when inquiry was made to find out whether their spiritual concept was the same as their earthly one, it turned out that it was not the same for people who inwardly recognized the Lord as the God of heaven and earth.

I heard one Christian elder say that no one could have a concept of a being both divine and human; and I saw him taken to various non-Christians, more and more profound ones. Then he was taken to their heavens, and finally to a heaven of Christians. Through the whole process people's inner perception of God was communicated to him, and he came to realize that their only concept of God was a concept of a person--which is the same as a concept of a being both divine and human.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #7523

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7523. 'And there will be on man and on beast' means the products of interior and exterior evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'man' as the affection for good, and in the contrary sense as the desire for evil; and 'beast' is similar in meaning. But when 'man' and 'beast' are mentioned together, 'man means interior affection or desire and 'beast' exterior; regarding both, see 7424. Interior good or else interior evil, which is meant by 'man', is that connected with intentions or ends in view, for intentions or ends in view are at a person's core, whereas exterior good or else exterior evil, which is meant by 'beast', is that connected with thought and consequently, if nothing stands in the way, with action. Exterior good is meant by 'beast' because a person is in respect of his external or natural man no different from a beast; for he is endowed with similar desires and also cravings, as well as appetites and senses. And interior good is meant by 'man because it is in respect of his internal or spiritual man that a person is a human being, on which internal level he is endowed with affections for what is good and true such as exist with the angels in heaven, and because he controls his natural or animal man, which is 'a beast', by means of that internal man. Regarding the meaning of 'beast' as the affection for good and in the contrary sense the desire for evil, see 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 719, 776, 2179, 2180, 3218, 3519, 5198.

[2] These things are what are meant by 'man and beast' in the following places too: In Jeremiah,

My anger and My wrath have been poured out on this place, on man and on beast. Jeremiah 7:20

In the same prophet,

I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great pestilence. Jeremiah 21:6.

In the same prophet,

It will make her land a desolation, so that none may dwell in it; both man and beast have scattered themselves, they have gone away. Jeremiah 50:3.

In Ezekiel,

When a land has sinned against Me by committing great transgression, I will cut off from it man and beast. Ezekiel 14:13, 19, 21.

In the same prophet,

I will stretch out My hand over Edom, and cut off from it man and beast, and make it a waste. Ezekiel 25:13.

In Zephaniah,

I will consume man and beast, I will consume the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from the surface of the earth. Zephaniah 1:3.

[3] 'Man and beast' stands for interior and exterior good in the following places: In Jeremiah,

I have made the earth, man and beast, by My great strength. Jeremiah 27:5.

In the same prophet,

Behold, the days are coming, said Jehovah, in which I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. Jeremiah 31:17.

In the same prophet,

A desolation will the earth be, so that man and beast are not there. Jeremiah 32:43.

In the same prophet,

In the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that have been devastated, there is no man and inhabitant, and there is no beast. Jeremiah 33:10; 51:62.

In David,

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, Your judgements a great deep; You preserve man and beast, O Jehovah. Psalms 36:6.

It was because 'man and beast' meant such things that the firstborn of the Egyptians died, not only of men but also of beasts, Exodus 12:29, and that the firstborn were consecrated [to Jehovah], not only of men but also of beasts, Numbers 18:15, and also that the king of Nineveh, following sacred religious practice, commanded that not only man but also beast should fast and also be clothed in sackcloth, Jonah 3:7-8.

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