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

 

Spiritual Experiences #155

  
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155. CONCERNING THE SPEECH AND UNDERSTANDING OF THINGS WITH THE ANGELS

I spoke with the spirits around me concerning the speech of angels, and their understanding of things, which the spirits were most eager to know. Having learned from experience, I said

(1) that the speech of angels cannot become perceptible to us, because it contains innumerable things together, as it were, which would have to be tediously explained in succession and by many circumlocutions; and that it cannot be represented to us otherwise than by almost incomprehensible forms, variously gyrated and circumgyrated, according to the nature of the more interior forms, which I cannot describe. Concerning these forms which have been shown me, see elsewhere. 1

(2) There is sometimes given a form of speech, or of very many speaking together, which does not appear similar but at times entirely different, when it falls into a lower sphere, as is the case for the most part with such representations as those of the Prophets, which therefore contain heavenly and thus arcane things in their more interior sense. For the understanding of the angels is reciprocal, namely, it is from such representations which, when presented to our ideas, are translated into heavenly ones which are understood by the angels; in this way can an earthly paradise everywhere pass over into a heavenly one.

(3) It was also shown me that the angels understood a series of things still more sublime and heavenly from natural things alone rightly connected. This, however, can never exist with the angels except from the mercy of God Messiah. 1747, Aug. 21, o.s.

(4) By the Divine mercy of God Messiah I could sometimes livingly feel such circumgyrations above me. From this I was able to conclude that myriads of these more interior things could produce one material idea, so called, in which such innumerable things are contained that man can never believe, still less comprehend, it. It is the same as regards each more interior idea, but indefinitely more perfectly. This form, and consequently the influx from God Messiah through the angels, and from them through spirits into human minds, is disturbed when man lives in a contrary order, especially when he wants to bring himself into the mysteries of faith by means of scientifics, enkindled by the love of self and the world, and thus by cupidities; thence arises a confusion or disturbance like that of the Babylonians when they were building their tower and their lips were confounded [Genesis xi 4-9

(5) Then God Messiah is said to be absent from man, although all things are still so disposed that they are reduced into the semblance of some heavenly form, which can be effected in an indefinite variety of ways. For however abstruse, intricate, and varied anything may be in the lower sphere, or in the sphere of the world, it can still be reduced into heavenly order by God Messiah; otherwise man would perish, and he could not understand anything whatever, for which reason there is preserved a spiritual influx in order that he may be able to reason. The door from the heavenly into the earthly paradise is said to be opened when man acts from above, that is, according to order, which is also to "turn the face". Concerning the Babylonish confusion and the opening of the heavenly Paradise.

Footnotes:

1. Perhaps n, 86; or On the Worship and Love of God, Part III.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem for the permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Genesis 11:7

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7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.