The Bible

 

Genesis 1:11

Study

       

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.

Commentary

 

Midst

  

The "midst" of something in the Bible represents the thing that is most central and most important to the spiritual state being described, the motivation that drives everything else. In general this will be something we love or feel, because at the core of things we are what we love; our loves define us.

(References: Apocalypse Revealed 44, 90, 268; Arcana Coelestia 2252, 2940, 10153, 10365, 10557, 10635, 10641)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #472

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

472. 'On the day in which God created Man' means when he was made spiritual, and 'in the likeness of God He made him' when he was made celestial. This is clear from what has been stated and shown already. Strictly speaking, the expression 'to create' has regard to a person while he is being created anew, or regenerated, whereas 'to make' has regard to when he is being perfected. This is why in the Word a careful distinction is maintained between 'creating', 'forming', and making', as has appeared already in Chapter 2 where, the subject being the spiritual man who became celestial, it is said that 'God rested from all His work which God had created when making it'. The same distinction occurs in other places, where 'creating' has regard to the spiritual man, while 'making', which is perfecting, has regard to the celestial man. See 16, 88.

  
/ 10837  
  

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