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

 

Marriage #34

  
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34. (19) Conjugial love depends upon the wife's love, and such too is the husband's love reciprocally; the wife's love does not depend on her husband's love. The reason is that just as the will acts on the understanding, good acts on truth; that is why it is said that a man ought to cleave to his wife. The reverse is true of those who are not in conjugial love.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3679

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3679. 'Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob' means the thought which natural good had regarding the joining [to the Divine Rational] through the good of truth, represented by 'Jacob'. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing' as thinking, for thinking is nothing else than inward seeing, or internal sight; from the representation of 'Esau' as the good of the natural, dealt with in 3300, 3302, 3322, 3404, 3504, 3576, 3599; from the meaning of 'being blessed' as a joining together, dealt with in 3504, 3514, 3530, 3565, 3584; from the representation of 'Isaac' as the Lord's Divine Rational as regards Divine Good, dealt with already; and from the representation of 'Jacob' as the good of truth, dealt with in 3669, 3677. From all this it is evident that 'Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob' means the thought which natural good had regarding the joining through the good of truth.

[2] But as to what thought which natural good had regarding the joining through the good of truth may be, no wholly intelligible explanation is possible. Even so, let a brief explanation be given. The thought which natural good has is the thought which exists in the rational or internal man and from there in the natural or external man, in particular from the good of the rational man. It is the rational or internal man which thinks, not the natural or external; for the rational or internal man dwells in the light of heaven, a light which holds intelligence and wisdom from the Lord within it, 3195, 3339, 3636, 3643, whereas the external man dwells in the light of the world, a light which does not hold any intelligence or indeed life within it. Consequently unless the internal man thought within the external no thought at all could ever exist. Yet to the person himself it seems as though his thought were located within his external, for it is from things which have come in by way of the senses and belong to the world that he thinks.

[3] This matter is like the sight of the eye. A sensory-minded person imagines that the eye sees of itself, when in fact the eye is no more than an organ in the body by means of which the internal man sees things outside of the body, that is, things in the world. The same matter is also like speech. The sensory-minded person might imagine that the mouth and tongue spoke of themselves, and anyone who thinks somewhat more deeply that the larynx and interior organs activated by the lungs did so, when in fact it is the thought which speaks by means of those organic parts - for speech is nothing else than thought expressed in speech. Such delusions of the senses are very many. The matter under consideration is also similar to all the life manifested in the external man, in that the life of the internal is within it, as within its own material or physical organ. The same is so with thought.

[4] As long as he is living in the body a person thinks from the rational within the natural; but it is one thing when the natural corresponds to the rational, quite another when the natural does not correspond. When the natural does correspond a person is rational and thinks spiritually; but when the natural does not correspond, he is not rational, and is unable to think spiritually. For with one whose natural does correspond to his rational, a line of communication is open enabling the light of heaven to flow in from the Lord by way of the rational into the natural, and to enlighten it with intelligence and wisdom. As a consequence he is rational and thinks spiritually. But with one whose natural does not correspond to his rational the line of communication is closed, and no more than a limited amount of light exists in general round about which enters in through chinks by way of the rational into the natural. Consequently he is not rational and does not think spiritually. For as is the influx of the light of heaven into a person, so is his thinking. From this it is evident that the nature of every person's thought is determined by the way in which, as regards good and truth, the natural corresponds to the rational.

[5] But spirits and angels scarcely think in the same way as men do. Their thought, it is true, is likewise based ultimately in the natural; for they have with them the whole natural memory and its affections, though they are not allowed to use that memory, 2475-2479. But although they are not allowed to use this, it nevertheless serves them as the ground-work or foundation for the ideas comprising their thought. Consequently the ideas which comprise their thought are interior, and their speech does not take the form of verbal expressions as with men but the form of real things. From this it is evident that with them also the nature of their thought is determined by that of the correspondence of their natural with their rational. Evident also is the fact that there are some spirits who are rational and think spiritually, and others who are not rational and do not think spiritually, the difference between the two depending entirely on the nature of their affections and consequent thoughts of things during their lifetime, that is, depending on the state of the life which they have acquired to themselves in the world.

[6] Therefore what thought may be which natural good possesses is evident to some extent from what has just been said above. That is to say, it is thought existing within the good of the natural. (According to spirits' way of thinking it is called the thought which natural good has, but according to men's it is called thought within the good of the natural.) It is within the latter - within the good of the natural - that the rational thinks. When good is the end in view, the thought which natural good has regarding the joining through the good of truth is accordingly thought within the natural - regarding the end in view. That is to say, it is thought about how truth can be joined to it, and joined according to Divine order, by the ordinary way, which, as often stated already, comes from the kinds of things that are external and therefore exist - in the ordered sequence of things - as those that are last or outermost. The entire regeneration of the natural begins with these. These outermost or last things are initial cognitions, such as those learned by infants and children, dealt with in 3665 (end).

[7] At first the truth of good, represented by 'Esau', is not in outward form joined to the good of truth, represented by 'Jacob', for in relation to the truth of good the good of truth exists inversely, 3669. Nevertheless they are joined together inmostly, that is, as regards ends in view. For the end that truth springing from good has in view is, as has been stated that truths may be joined according to order to itself, while the end in view of good springing from truth is the same. And since it is the end in view that joins them together, those two also are therefore so joined together, 3562, 3565. The inversion of order in the early stages is merely the means to an attainment of the end in view.

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