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 #31

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31. That 'the great lights' mean love and faith, and are also mentioned as the sun, the moon, and the stars, is clear from various places in the Prophets, as in Ezekiel,

When I have blotted you out, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars, I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light. All the bright lights in the heavens I will make dark over you, and I will put darkness over your land. Ezekiel 32:7-8.

This refers to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, who are used in the Word to mean the sensory and the factual. The meaning here is that they will have blotted out love and faith by means of sensory evidence and factual knowledge. In Isaiah,

The day of Jehovah for making the earth a desolation; for the stars of the heavens and their constellations 1 will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. Isaiah 13:9-10.

In Joel,

The day of Jehovah is coming, a day of darkness and thick darkness. The earth quakes before Him, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. Joel 2:10.

[2] In Isaiah, in reference to the Lord's Coming and the enlightenment of gentiles, and so to a new Church, in particular to individuals who are in darkness but who are beginning to receive the light and be regenerated,

Arise, shine, for your light has come. Behold, darkness is covering the earth, and thick darkness the peoples, but Jehovah will arise upon you, and nations will walk towards your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light; your sun will no more go down nor your moon be withdrawn, for Jehovah will be for you an everlasting light. Isaiah 60:1-3, 19-20.

In David,

Jehovah makes the heavens by intelligence, He spreads out the earth upon the waters, He makes the great lights, the sun to have dominion over the day, and the moon and stars to have dominion over the night. Psalms 136:5-9.

And in the same author,

Praise Jehovah, sun and moon, praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, heaven of heavens, and waters that are above the heavens! Psalms 148:3-4.

[3] In all of these places 'the lights' mean love and faith. Because the lights represented and meant love and faith in the Lord, the Jewish Church was commanded to keep a light burning all the time from evening till morning, for every command which that Church received was representative of the Lord. Concerning this light it is said,

Command the sons of Israel that they take oil for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. In the Tent of Meeting outside the veil which is before the testimony Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before Jehovah. [Exodus 27:20-21]

That this means the love and faith which the Lord kindles and causes to shine in the internal man, and by means of the internal man in the external man, will in the Lord's Divine mercy be shown at that point in Exodus.

Footnotes:

1. literally, orions

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #10445

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10445. 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens' means forms of good and truths, and cognitions of them. This is clear from the meaning of 'seed', when it has reference to heaven and the Church, as the goodness and truth there, dealt with in 1940, 3038, 3310, 3373, 3671, 6158, 10249; and from the meaning of 'the stars' as cognitions or knowledge of goodness and truth, dealt with in 2495, 2849, 4697. In the sense of the letter 'multiplying the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel as the stars of the heavens' is used to mean multiplying the Israelite and Jewish nation in countless numbers; but since spiritual and celestial realities are meant by names in the Word, and heaven and the Church are meant by the names of those three, 'their seed' means the forms of good and the truths that exist in heaven and in the Church. The reason why it says 'as the stars of the heavens' is that where comparisons occur in the Word, these too have a spiritual meaning, 3579, 8989. Here a comparison is made with 'the stars of the heavens' because forms of good and truths - cognitions of them - are what is meant by 'stars'.

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