The Bible

 

Genesis 1:4

Study

       

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Commentary

 

Stars

  

In Genesis 1:16, this signifies goods and truths, or, in the opposite sense, evils and falsities. (Arcana Coelestia 1808)

In Matthew 24:29, this signifies knowledge of faith which falls from heaven. (Arcana Coelestia 32, 1984[3])

'Stars' signify the knowledge of truth and good. 'Stars' are frequently mentioned in the Word, and always signify goods and truths, but in an opposite sense, evils and falsities. In the same way, they signify angels, or societies of angels, in the opposite sense, evil spirits and their bands. When they signify angels, or societies of angels, then they are fixed stars, but when they signify evil spirits and their fellowships, then they are wandering stars. 'The seven stars' in Revelation 1, denote the knowledge of everything pertaining to good and truth, and so every variety of good and truth.

(References: Apocalypse Revealed 51)


From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #18

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

18. 'The face 1 of the deep' is that person's desires and resulting falsities, of which he consists and in which he is completely absorbed; and because he has no light at all he is like the deep, or something thoroughly obscure. Throughout the Word such people are also called 'the deep' and 'the depths of the sea' which are dried up or laid waste until a person's regeneration starts, as in Isaiah,

Awake as in the days of antiquity, the generations of long ago. Was it not You that did dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep; making the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to go across? Let the ransomed of Jehovah return. Isaiah 51:9-11.

Furthermore, when looked at from heaven, this kind of person resembles a darkened mass with no life to it. The same expressions embody within them in general the vastation in man, described many times by the Prophets, which precedes regeneration. For before a person can know what truth is, or be moved by good, the things that hinder and offer resistance must be removed. Thus the old man must die before the new one can be conceived.

Footnotes:

1. literally, the faces

  
/ 10837  
  

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