The Bible

 

Genesis 1:27

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27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #300

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300. As regards the first arcanum, that 'Jehovah God' is used to mean the Lord and at the same time heaven, it should be recognized that in the Word, always for some hidden reason, the Lord is sometimes called simply Jehovah, sometimes Jehovah God, sometimes Jehovah and God interchangeably, sometimes the Lord Jehovah, sometimes the God of Israel, and sometimes simply God. In Genesis 1, for example, where again an utterance is made in the plural, 'Let Us make man in Our image', God is the only name used. Not until the next chapter, where the celestial man is the subject, is He called Jehovah God-Jehovah, because He alone has Being and is Living, and so from His essence; God, because of His ability to accomplish all things, and so from His power, as is clear in the Word where the two names are used separately, Isaiah 49:4-5; 55:7; Psalms 18:2, 28, 30-31; Psalms 38:15. Consequently any angel or spirit who spoke to a person, or who people thought had the ability to accomplish something, they called God, as is clear in David,

God stands in the assembly of God, in the midst of the Gods will He judge. Psalms 82:1.

And elsewhere in David,

Who in the sky will be compared to Jehovah? Who will be likened to Jehovah among the sons of gods? Psalms 89:6.

And elsewhere in the same,

Confess the God of Gods; confess the Lord of lords. Psalms 136:2-3

It is from power that even men are called 'gods', as in Psalms 82:6; John 10:34-35. And Moses is spoken of as 'a god to Pharaoh', Exodus 7:1. And this also is why [in Hebrew] the word for God, Elohim, is plural. But because angels have no power whatsoever from themselves, as they themselves also confess, but from the Lord only, and as there is but one God, Jehovah God is therefore used in the Word to mean the Lord alone. Yet when anything is accomplished through the ministry of angels He is spoken of in the plural, as in Genesis 1. In the present chapter too, since a celestial man, as man, did not bear comparison with the Lord, but with angels, it is therefore said that 'the man has become as one of Us in knowing good and evil', that is, become someone wise and having intelligence.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #10555

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10555. 'As a man (vir) speaks to [his] neighbour' means the joining together of truth and good. This is clear from the meaning of 'speaking' as reciprocal perception and the consequent joining together, as immediately above in 10554; from the meaning of 'man' (vir) as truth, dealt with in 3134, 3459, 4823, 7716, 9007; and from the meaning of 'neighbour' as good to which truth is joined. Various places in the Word use the expression 'man and neighbour' or 'man and companion', and by it in a reciprocal way is meant, as also by 'man and brother'. And when in a reciprocal way is meant a reciprocal joining together should be understood, like that of truth and good. For truth joins itself in a reciprocal way with good, because truth derives its being from good, and good receives its specific quality in truth. No truth exists in heaven that is not joined to good, because without good truth is not anything; nor is good anything without truth. For truth without good is like the receiver of being without the giver of being, and good without truth is like the giver of it without the receiver. Or truth without good is like a body without life, and good without truth is like life without a body. Therefore unless the two are joined together they are not anything that can accomplish anything; that is, they are not anything to which anything of heaven and the Church can be attributed.

[2] The situation when one is without the other is similar to that when the human understanding exists without the will, or the will without the understanding. One may indeed become separated from the other, as when there is an understanding of what is true and good but no will to do it. In this case however the understanding has a will derived from a source other than that which is good. It derives it from willing well to self, or [to others] for the sake of self, with the understanding of what is true and good serving as means to this end. Those who reflect correctly on the matter may recognize that the human understanding derives its life from its will, without which it is not anything, and also that understanding and will turn to each other and are linked together. A similar situation exists with truth and good, consequently with faith and love. Unless truth is linked to good, or faith to love, there is no truth or good, nor any faith or love. These matters have been mentioned in order that people may know what to understand by a linking of each to the other, meant in the spiritual sense by 'man and companion' or 'man and neighbour', and also by 'man and brother'.

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