The Bible

 

Genesis 1:26

Study

       

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.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #48

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

48. From these considerations it is now clear that the fifth state is one in which a person speaks from faith which is part of the understanding and in so doing confirms himself in truth and good; and that what he produces at that point are the animate things called 'the fish of the sea and the birds of the air. 1 It is also clear that the sixth state exists when he utters truths and performs good deeds from faith which is part of the understanding and so from love which is part of the will. What he produces at that point is called a living creature and a beast. And because at that point he begins to act both from faith and from love simultaneously, he becomes a spiritual man, who is called an image; and this is dealt with next.

Footnotes:

1. literally, birds of the heavens (or the skies)

  
/ 10837  
  

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #9404

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

9404. 'And seventy of the elders of Israel' means all who are governed by good which results from truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'seventy' as that which is complete, thus all things or all people, dealt with in 6508; and from the meaning of 'the elders of Israel' as those who are governed by good which results from truths and guided by truths which flow from good. For 'elders' in the Word means those with wisdom, 6524, thus those who lead a good life as a result of teachings declaring what is true; and 'Israel' means those who belong to the spiritual Church, 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198, 7201, 7215, 7223, 8805, 9340, thus those who are guided by truths that lead to good and governed by good from which truths flow, 7957, 8234. From all this it is evident that 'seventy elders of Israel' means those who are governed by good which results from truths, and that in the sense detached from persons that good itself is meant. The same is meant in the internal sense by 'the Lord's seventy disciples', Luke 10:1, 17. The children of Israel were divided into twelve tribes, which had twelve princes or governors set in authority over them, and also seventy elders. 'The twelve tribes' meant all the truths and forms of good the Church possesses in their entirety, 3858, 3926, 3939, 4060, 6335, 6337, 6397, 6640, 7836, 7891, 7996, 7997; but 'the twelve princes' meant all the primary truths, 5044, and 'the seventy elders' all the forms of good resulting from truths.

[2] When the expression 'good which results from truths' is used the spiritual Church is meant; for this Church is governed by good resulting from truths. Anyone unacquainted with the arcana of the Church and of heaven may think that, since good cannot be implanted except through truths, all the good in the Church exists as a result of truths, indeed that a person cannot know what good is except through truths. However, the good which arises through truths is the spiritual Church's good, which regarded in itself is truth but is called good when it becomes part of will and action, and consequently of life. But good that does not arise through truths but through forms of the good of mutual love is the celestial Church's good, which regarded in itself is not truth but good since it is the good of love to the Lord. The Jewish Church represented this second kind of good, whereas the Israelite Church represented the first; and this accounts for their division into two kingdoms. For what the essential difference is between those two Churches and consequently the two kinds of good, see what has been shown already in 2048, 2227, 2669, 2708 (end), 2715, 2718, 2935, 2937, 2954, 3166, 3235, 3236, 3240, 3246, 3374, 3833, 3887, 3969, 4138, 4286, 4493, 4585, 4938, 5113, 5150, 5922, 6289, 6296, 6366, 6427, 6435, 6500, 6647, 6648, 7091, 7233, 7877, 7977, 7992, 8042, 8152, 8234, 8521. From what has been introduced in these paragraphs it becomes clear that the Lord's heaven is divided into a spiritual heaven and a celestial heaven, and that the celestial heaven is the inmost or third heaven, while the spiritual heaven is the middle or second.

  
/ 10837  
  

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