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

 

The Lord #30

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30. 1. The Lord from eternity is Jehovah. This we know from the Word, since the Lord said to the Jews,

Truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. (John 8:58)

And again,

Glorify me, Father, with the glory I had with you before the world existed. (John 17:5)

This means the Lord from eternity and not the Son from eternity, because the Son is his human nature conceived by Jehovah the Father and born by the Virgin Mary in time, as explained above.

[2] We are assured by many passages in the Word that the Lord from eternity is Jehovah himself, a few of which passages may be cited now.

It will be said on that day, “This is our God; we have waited for him to free us. [This is] Jehovah; we have waited for him. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:9)

We can see from this that the speakers were waiting for Jehovah God himself.

A voice of someone in the wilderness crying out, “Prepare a pathway for Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God. The glory of Jehovah will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together. Behold, the Lord Jehovih is coming in strength.” (Isaiah 40:3, 5, 10; Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4)

Here too, the Lord, who is to come, is called Jehovah.

[3] I am Jehovah. I will make you a covenant for the people, a light for the nations. I am Jehovah. This is my name, and I will not give my glory to another. (Isaiah 42:6-8)

A covenant for the people and a light for the nations is the Lord in his human nature. Because this is from Jehovah and was made one with Jehovah, it says “I am Jehovah. This is my name, and I will not give my glory to another” - that is, to no one other than himself. To give glory is to glorify, or to unite with himself.

[4] The Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his Temple. (Malachi 3:1)

The Temple means the temple of his body, as he says in John 2:19, 21.

The Dayspring from on high has visited us. (Luke 1:78)

The Dayspring from on high is Jehovah, or the Lord from eternity.

We can see from these passages that “the Lord from eternity” means his divine nature as the source, which is called Jehovah in the Word. We will see from passages to be cited below that after his human nature had been glorified, both “the Lord” and “Jehovah” mean the divine nature and the human nature together as one, and that “the Son” by itself means the divine human nature.

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

The Bible

 

Luke 1:78-79

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78 Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,

79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.