The Bible

 

Genesis 1:1

Study

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #20

Study this Passage

  
/ 853  
  

20. (ii) THE ONE GOD IS SUBSTANCE ITSELF AND FORM ITSELF, AND ANGELS AND MEN ARE SUBSTANCES AND FORMS DERIVED FROM HIM; TO THE EXTENT THAT THEY ARE IN HIM AND HE IN THEM, SO FAR ARE THEY IMAGES AND LIKENESSES OF HIM.

Since God is Being, He is also substance, for unless being is substance, it is an imaginary entity, for substance is a subsisting entity. One who is substance must also be form, for substance without form is an imaginary entity. Both can therefore be predicated of God, but on condition that He is the sole, very and prime substance and form. It was proved in THE WISDOM OF THE ANGELS ON THE DIVINE LOVE AND THE DIVINE WISDOM (published at Amsterdam in 1763) that this form is the very form of man, that is, God is very man, and all of his attributes are infinite; and likewise that angels and men are substances and forms created and ordered so as to receive the Divine influences reaching them through heaven. In the Book of Creation they are therefore called images and likenesses of God (Genesis 1:26-27); elsewhere they are called His sons and begotten of Him. It will be proved at length in the course of this book that in so far as a man lives under Divine guidance, that is, allows himself to be led by God, so far does he become, more and more inwardly, an image of God.

[2] If the minds of men did not form the idea that God is prime substance and form, and that His form is the very form of man, they would easily fall into fantastic, ghost-like, ideas about God Himself, the origin of man and the creation of the world. They could not avoid thinking of God as the primeval nature of the universe, and consequently as its expanse, or as it were a void or nothingness. They would think of the origin of man as if it were a fortuitous concourse of atoms to make such a form; of the creation of the world as owing its substances and forms to geometric points and lines, which since they lack attributes are in themselves non-existent. In the case of such people everything relating to the church is like the river Styx or the thick darkness of Tartarus.

  
/ 853  
  

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1963

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

1963. 'Abram was a son of eighty-six years' means the Lord's state as regards celestial goods acquired through the conflicts brought about by temptations. This is clear from the meaning of 'eighty', a number that is similar to forty in what it embodies, which, as shown already in 730, 862, means temptations; from the meaning of 'six' as conflict, also dealt with already in 720, 737, 900; as well as from the meaning of 'ten' as remnants, dealt with in 576. With the Lord these remnants were acquisitions of celestial goods by which He united the Human Essence to the Divine Essence; see 1906 (end). These three numbers go to make up the number of eighty-six, which embodies such matters within it, and so means the Lord's state as regards celestial goods that had been acquired through the conflicts brought about by temptations; for all numbers in the Word mean real things, as shown already in 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813. As the numbers mentioned here 1 are numbers of years, and as they in fact occur in a historical narrative regarding Abram, it does seem as though they are not used to mean such things. But nothing is written in the Word that does not pass into a spiritual or celestial sense when it reaches the angels, for with angels none other than spiritual and celestial ideas exist. When the Word is being read by man, angels neither know nor perceive what eighty-six is, nor are they concerned about what age Abram was when Hagar bore him Ishmael. Rather, when such a number is read, the real things embodied in that number instantly present themselves to them, as when all other expressions are read, these present themselves as the things which they have been shown to mean in the internal sense.

Footnotes:

1. i.e. 80, 6 - in the Latin and in the Hebrew the words are literally Abram was a son of eighty years and six years

  
/ 10837  
  

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