The Bible

 

Genesis 1:1

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From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #22

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22. Verse 5 And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.

What 'evening' means, and what 'morning', is recognized from what is said above. 'Evening' means every prior state, because it is a state of shade, that is, of falsity and of absence of faith, while 'morning' is every subsequent state, because it is one of light, that is, of truth and of cognitions of faith. 'Evening' in general means all the things that are man's own, whereas 'morning' means all those that are the Lord's, as is said through David,

The Spirit of Jehovah has spoken within me, and His word is upon my tongue. The God of Israel has said, the Rock of Israel has spoken to me. He is like the morning light, when the sun is rising on a cloudless morning, shining bright, as when after rain tender grass [springs up] from the earth. 2 Samuel 23:4.

Because 'evening' is a time when there is no faith, and 'morning' when there is, the Lord's Coming into the world is called 'the morning', and the time at which He comes, since faith does not exist at that point, is called 'the evening', as in Daniel,

The Holy One said to me, Up to the evening when it is becoming morning, two thousand three hundred times. Daniel 8:13-14.

In the Word, 'morning' stands in a similar way for every coming of the Lord, and so is a term describing the new creation.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3461

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3461. Verses 32-33 And so it was on that day, that Isaac's servants came and pointed out to him the reasons for the well which they had dug, and they said to him, We have found water. And he called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba even to this day.

'So it was on that day' means that state. 'That Isaac's servants came' means rational concepts. 'And pointed out to him the reasons for the well which they had dug; and they said to him, We have found water' means interior truths obtained by means of these. 'And he called it Shibah' means the conjunction of confirmed truth by means of them. 'Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba' means the essential nature of the doctrine resulting from that conjunction. 'Even to this day' means the perpetuity of the state.

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