The Bible

 

Genesis 1:4

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #22

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22. Verse 5 And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.

What 'evening' means, and what 'morning', is recognized from what is said above. 'Evening' means every prior state, because it is a state of shade, that is, of falsity and of absence of faith, while 'morning' is every subsequent state, because it is one of light, that is, of truth and of cognitions of faith. 'Evening' in general means all the things that are man's own, whereas 'morning' means all those that are the Lord's, as is said through David,

The Spirit of Jehovah has spoken within me, and His word is upon my tongue. The God of Israel has said, the Rock of Israel has spoken to me. He is like the morning light, when the sun is rising on a cloudless morning, shining bright, as when after rain tender grass [springs up] from the earth. 2 Samuel 23:4.

Because 'evening' is a time when there is no faith, and 'morning' when there is, the Lord's Coming into the world is called 'the morning', and the time at which He comes, since faith does not exist at that point, is called 'the evening', as in Daniel,

The Holy One said to me, Up to the evening when it is becoming morning, two thousand three hundred times. Daniel 8:13-14.

In the Word, 'morning' stands in a similar way for every coming of the Lord, and so is a term describing the new creation.

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

Commentary

 

Life

  
by Jenny Stein

The Lord is life itself, and we are recipients of life. This is true even of the most evil spirits, who loved only themselves in life and hate and deny the Lord from their place in the lowest hells; the Lord forces life upon them, despite their rejection, in the amount necessary to keep them from ceasing to exist. The situation is much different, of course, with people who accept and follow the Lord; by doing this they open themselves up to the inflow of life, and become more full the more open they are. This is the “life” in question when the Bible uses that word. It indicates spiritual life, the life that comes from the Lord into our hearts and minds. We accept life from the Lord by learning about Him, learning what is right and wrong, and by determining that we will stop doing what's wrong and instead do what is right.

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