The Bible

 

Genesis 1:24

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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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3622

Study this Passage

  
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3622. 'Like these of the daughters of the land' means because they are not from that ground, that is, from truths which the genuine Church knows. This is clear from the meaning of 'the daughters of the land' as Churches, for 'the daughters' means affections for good and truth, 2363, and 'the land' means the region where the Church is situated, and so means the Church itself, dealt with in 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 2928, 3355. 'The daughters of the land' accordingly means the goods and truths of the Church.

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

Commentary

 

Beginning

  
Photo by Jenny Stein

Spiritually, "beginning" happens when we first start new growth -- new levels of awareness and willingness to receive goods and truths from the Lord, and use them. In the Word, "beginning" doesn't just mean the beginning of something in time. In the inner sense, it means the initial phase of a spiritual state.