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.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #486

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486. Verse 4 And the days of Man after he beget Seth were eight hundred years; and he beget sons and daughters.

'Days' means periods of time and states in general. 'Years' means periods of time and states in particular. 'Sons and daughters' means the truths and goods that they perceived.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4850

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4850. 'The days were multiplied' means a change of state. This is clear from the meaning of 'the days being multiplied' as undergoing a change of state, for 'day' or a time in the internal sense means state, 23, 487, 488, 893a, 2788, 3462, 3785, and 'being multiplied' when used in reference to days or times means undergoing a change. The fact that a change of state is the meaning is also evident from the details that follow. The expression 'to be multiplied' is used because it implies a change of state so far as truths are concerned; for 'to be multiplied' is used in reference to truths, 43, 55, 913, 983, 2846, 2847. Since the terms state and change of state are being used time and again, and yet few know what a state or a change of state is, a statement needs to be made about what these are. Neither time and the passage of time nor space and the extension of space can be associated with the interior aspects of the human being - that is to say, with his affections and his thoughts formed by these - because his affections and thoughts are not located in time and place, though to the senses in the world they do seem to be thus located. Rather, they are located in the interior things which correspond to time and place. The things which correspond to them cannot be called anything else than states, for no other term exists to describe the things that correspond to time and place. A change of state in interior things is said to take place when the affections and resulting thoughts in a person's mind or disposition (mens seu animus) undergo change, as when sadness turns to joy, or joy back to sadness, when ungodliness turns to godliness or devotion, and so on. These changes are called changes of state and are attributable to affections and, insofar as thoughts are governed by these, to thoughts also. But the changes of state which thoughts held within affections undergo are like those of individual parts within their general wholes, compared with which they are variations.

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