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

 

True Christian Religion #780

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780. In order that the Lord could be constantly present with me, He has revealed to me the spiritual sense of His Word, in which Divine truth is illuminated by its own light, and in this He is continually present. For it is through the spiritual sense and in no other way that He is present in the Word. His presence passes through the light shed by the spiritual sense into the shadow which covers the literal sense. This may be compared with the sun's light in daytime obscured by an intervening cloud. I proved above that the literal sense of the Word is like a cloud, and its spiritual sense is the glory, and the Lord Himself is the sun which gives light, so that the Lord is the Word. It is clear from the following passages that the glory in which the Lord is to come (Matthew 24:30) means Divine truth in its own light, which contains the spiritual sense of the Word:

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way for Jehovah. The glory of Jehovah will be revealed, and all flesh will see it, Isaiah 40:3, 5.

Shine, for your light has come and the glory of Jehovah has risen upon you, Isaiah 60:1-end.

I shall make you to be a covenant for the people, a light for the nations; and my glory I shall not give to another, Isaiah 42:6, 8; 48:11.

Your light will burst forth like the dawn, the glory of Jehovah will gather you up, Isaiah 58:8.

The whole earth will be filled with the glory of Jehovah, Numbers 14:21; Isaiah 6:1-3; 66:18.

In the beginning was the Word. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. He was the true light. And the Word was made flesh, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, John 1:1, 4, 9, 14.

The heavens will tell the glory of God, Psalms 19:1.

The Glory of God will give light to the Holy Jerusalem, and the Lamb will be its lantern; and the nations who are saved will walk in its 1 light, Revelation 21:23-24.

There are many other similar passages. The reason why glory means Divine truth in its fulness is that everything magnificent in heaven is so because of the light, which is radiated from the Lord. And the light radiating from Him as the sun of heaven is in its essence Divine truth.

Footnotes:

1. The Latin says 'in His light', but the Greek has 'in its light' and this version is followed in 790 and at Apocalypse Revealed 920.

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

The Bible

 

John 1:4-5

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4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.