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 #5605

  
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5605. They have the Word of the Ancient Church, the title of which they call, in part, ENUNCIATIONS, in part, THE WARS OF JEHOVAH, and PROPHETICALS 1 - concerning which. . . 2 The ancients have this; but they said that that Word is so written that they can be instructed in minutest things. It is also inspired; but, inasmuch as it was no longer of service for the men who succeeded them, another Word was written. Of what kind this [Ancient] Word is, is manifest from the first chapters of Genesis, which were taken thence. 2

Footnotes:

1. One of these "PROPHETICALS" is the Book of Jasher (see Sacred Scripture, 103, near the end, and True Christian Religion, 265, also near the end), quoted by JOSHUA on the occasion of the sun standing still in Gibeah, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon (Joshua 10:12, 13). -ED.

2. For further information on this highly interesting and important subject of the Ancient Word, the reader is referred to Sacred Scripture, 102, 103; True Christian Religion, 265, 266, 279. -ED.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #8932

Study this Passage

  
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8932. 'You shall not make [to be] with Me gods of silver and gods of gold' means that they are to avoid completely things which to outward appearances look like truths and forms of good but inwardly are falsities and evils. This is clear from the meaning of 'making gods' as worshipping, since someone who makes gods for himself does so in order to worship them; from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, and therefore in the contrary sense as falsity, and from the meaning of 'gold' as good, and therefore in the contrary sense as evil, both dealt with in 113, 1551, 1552, 2954, 5658, 6914, 6917, 7999. The reason why these are things which to outward appearances look like truths and forms of good, but inwardly are falsities and evils, is that the words 'making them with Me', that is, with Jehovah God, are used. Actual Divine Truth and Goodness reside on an inner level; they reside on an outer level as well, but then they are embodied in types or representative images. For the outward things composing a type or image stand for and represent inner realities. Outward things are falsities and evils when, separated from inner realities, they are held to be holy and are worshipped; and yet they still look like truths and forms of good because they represent those realities. These things are meant by 'making [to be] with Jehovah God gods of silver and gods of gold'.

[2] This commandment follows immediately after the Ten Commandments because the Israelite and Jewish people were the sort that held outward things separated from inward realities to be holy and worshipped them as being altogether Divine, 3479, 3769, 4281, 4293, 4307, 4314, 4316, 4433, 4680, 4825, 4832, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4903, 6304, 6832, 8814, 8819. To gain more definite knowledge of what those things are which look to outward appearances like truths and forms of good but inwardly are falsities and evils, and what those things are like, take as examples all the ritual practices of the Jewish Church, such as sacrifices, burning incense, washings, and many other practices. Outwardly they were truths and forms of good, not in themselves but because they were types or images that stood for and represented inward truths and forms of good, which are aspects of love to the Lord and faith in Him. When the outward objects belonging to such practices were held to be holy, and especially when they were worshipped, as they were by the Jews and Israelites when they became idolaters and used them in the worship of strange gods, they no longer had any connection with the truths and forms of good which they stood for and represented, because inwardly they were falsities and evils.

[3] The situation was the same with all other things that were types or representative images of heavenly and Divine realities among that people. For as soon as outward things which represented inner realities were used in the worship of other gods they became idols worshipped by them or 'gods of silver and gold which they made [to be] with Jehovah God'. For then those things looked to outward appearances like truths and forms of good, but inwardly they were falsities and evils.

[4] In general 'gods of silver and gold' are all the falsities and derivative evils in worship which are made to look like truth and good through wrong usages and misinterpretations of the Word, and at the same time through reasonings that are the product of self-intelligence. Such things are meant by 'gods of silver and gold' in the following places: In Isaiah,

On that day a person will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold which they made for themselves to bow down to, to the moles and bats, to go into the clefts 1 of the rocks and into the fissures of the crags. Isaiah 2:20-21.

'Moles and bats' stands for those who are in darkness, that is, are steeped in falsities and derivative evils.

[5] In the same prophet,

On that day a man will cast aside his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you - a sin. Isaiah 31:7.

'Which your hands have made' stands for things which are the product of self-intelligence. In the same prophet,

The craftsman casts a graven image, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it. Isaiah 40:19.

'Graven images' are things which are products of the proprium or self, 8869. 'Overlaying with gold' stands for making things look to outward appearances like forms of good, 'casting silver chains' stands for making them seem to hang together as if linked to one another with truths, good being meant by 'gold' and truth by 'silver', see the paragraphs referred to above.

[6] Similarly in Jeremiah,

The customs 2 of the nations are vanity. Since indeed one cuts out wood from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, he decorates it with silver and gold; they make it firm with pegs and hammers, so that it is not unsteady. Jeremiah 10:3-4.

In Hosea,

The Ephraimites sin more and more, and make for themselves a molten image from silver, idols by their own intelligence, completely the work of craftsmen. Hosea 13:2.

'Ephraim' stands for the Church's understanding, 5354, 6222, 6234, 6238, 6267; 'a molten image made from silver' stands for falsity that looks like truth, which is why it says 'by their own intelligence'; and 'completely the work of craftsmen' stands for the fact that it is all brought about through reasonings which are a product of the proprium or self.

[7] In Habakkuk,

Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, Awake! or to a dumb stone, Wake up, this will teach! Behold, this is bound in gold and silver, but there is no spirit in the midst of it. Habakkuk 2:19.

'A piece of wood' stands for evil, 'a stone' for falsity. 'Bound in gold and silver' stands for applications used to give the appearance of what is good and true. In Daniel,

Belshazzar said, when he had properly tasted the wine, that they were to bring the vessels of gold and silver which his father Nebuchadnezzar had brought from the temple that [had been] in Jerusalem, in order that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. And they would drink wine, and praise the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Daniel 5:2-4, 23.

'The vessels of gold and silver from the temple of Jerusalem' represented the forms of good and the truths which belonged to the Church and to the Lord's kingdom; 'drinking wine from them' meant desecrating them by means of evils and falsities, which are 'the gods of gold and silver'.

[8] In David,

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands They have a mouth, but they do not speak; they have eyes but do not see. Psalms 115:4-5; 135:15-16.

'Silver and gold, which are idols' stands for falsities and evils; 'the work of human hands' stands for the fact that they are the product of self-intelligence. In Moses,

You shall burn the graven images of the gods of the nations with fire; you shall not covet the silver and the gold that are on them, so that you take them to yourself; for it is an abomination to Jehovah your God. Therefore you shall not bring an abomination into your house, lest you become 3 an accursed thing like it; you shall utterly abhor it. Deuteronomy 7:25-26.

'Silver and gold on graven images' stands for falsities and evils which are worshipped as truths and forms of good because they have been made to look like these.

Footnotes:

1. Reading scissuras (clefts) for fissuras (fissures)

2. literally, statutes

3. Reading fias (you become) for fiat (it becomes)

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