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

 

Spirit

  

There are two aspects to the life of each person. We might call them "heart" and "mind," a part of us that wants and feels and a part of us that thinks and knows. The Writings usually refer to these as the "will" and the "understanding." They are reflections, and receptacles, of the Lord's infinite love and infinite wisdom. Of the two, the heart or will is ultimately the most important. Who we actually are is determined by what we love, and the things in our heart ultimately determine our place in heaven (or hell). But the will is beyond our control; we can't force ourselves to want something good or to not want something bad; we can control our actions, but not our feelings. Because of this power, the Lord works subtly and carefully in our hearts, in ways we can't sense. Most of the work and interaction goes on in our minds through the working of what the Writings call "Divine Truth," which is essentially the Lord's entire essence expressed in a form that is compatible with our minds. When the Bible talks about the Lord's "spirit," it represents this operation of Divine Truth in our minds, the way he reaches out and embraces us, and invites us to embrace him back. And when the Bible talks about people having "spirit," it is talking about our minds when we embrace Divine Truth.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #512

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512. And the third part of the sea became blood, signifies that in consequence everything therein became the falsity of evil. This is evident from the signification of the "third part," as being all (See above, n. 506); also from the signification of the "sea," as being the natural man (See just above, n. 511); therefore "the third part of the sea" signifies the whole natural man and everything therein; also from the signification of "blood," as being falsity of evil (See also above, n. 329). From this the spiritual sense of this verse can be seen, namely, that "the great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood," signifies that the love of self, when it enters into and occupies the natural man, turns every knowledge [scientificum] into the falsity of evil.

[2] The love of self is a love purely corporeal, springing from the rising up and fermenting of worn out parts and the titillation caused by these inwardly in the body; in consequence of which the perceptive faculty of the mind, which requires a pure atmosphere, not only becomes dull and gross, but even perishes. That this is the origin of the love of self can be seen from its correspondence with human dung; for those who have been corroded by this love, when they come into the other life love above all things stercoraceous filth, and its stench is grateful to them, which proves that the effluvium therefrom pleasantly affects the sensory of their smell, as it had before affected the general sensory, which is extended by interior cuticles in every direction. From this alone it can be seen that the love of self is more gross and foully corporeal than any other love, and consequently that it takes away all spiritual perception, which is a perception of the truth and good of heaven and the church. Moreover, it shuts up the spiritual mind and fixes its seat entirely in the natural and sensual man, which communicates most closely with the body and has no communication with heaven. From this again it comes to pass that all those in whom the love of self is dominant are sensual, and do not see the things that belong to heaven and the church except in the densest darkness; and furthermore they reject and deny these whenever they are alone and are thinking with themselves. From this the signification of "the third part of the sea became blood, in consequence of the great mountain burning with fire that was cast into it," can now be seen.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.