The Bible

 

Genesis 2

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1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

   

Commentary

 

Resurrection, the first

  

'The first resurrection,' mentioned in Revelation 20:5, 6, does not mean a first resurrection, but the essence and primary part of resurrection, which is salvation and eternal life. There is only one resurrection to life. A second does not happen, and is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 6; Apocalypse Revealed 851; Revelation 20:5-6)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Spiritual Experiences #5378

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5378. I heard and saw up to many myriads let down from heaven there, first toward the north, then toward the west, and lastly toward the south. In a word, an enormous multitude was heard. And it was said that they were those who have lived piously and thought about God, yet not about the Lord except as a human being like themselves and not about Him as God. And in addition there were those who had thought only about the Father and about the Lord otherwise than one ought. In a word, they were those who had always directed their thought to God the Father so that He would save them on account of the Son. And when they did think about the one God, they did not think about the Lord at the same time. So they had not worshiped the Lord, when yet the Father cannot be approached except through Him, since He is the way [John 14:6], and no one comes to the Father except through Him [ibid.]. And also no one can see the Father [John 6:46] unless He makes Him known, as He himself says in John 1:18 and elsewhere. In a word, they had not had the Lord in their life of piety, when nevertheless without the Lord there is no salvation. Those who are like this, however much they think about God, still cannot be led, for they still think indeterminately and have no connection with the Lord, who nevertheless is the God of heaven and earth. Nor were they able to think about God in any human, thus definite, form. As a result their thought collapses into something nonexistent, or rather, they do not think about the Trinity, when yet this must be thought about when thinking about God. Because they passed by the Lord and are then in oblivion, that is to say, engaged in no thought about the Divine itself, however much the church openly teaches this; their thought about the Lord sinks from the Divine, which is nothing to them, into the likeness of a common man, thus not into someone to whom they could direct their thoughts. Rather their mental picture about Him would be like that of a mere man, and not God. Because of this such spirits could not be together with the angels and heaven. Therefore they were let down from there to the number of many thousands.

  
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Thanks to the Academy of the New Church, and Bryn Athyn College, for the permission to use this translation.