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

 

Marriage #34

  
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34. (19) Conjugial love depends upon the wife's love, and such too is the husband's love reciprocally; the wife's love does not depend on her husband's love. The reason is that just as the will acts on the understanding, good acts on truth; that is why it is said that a man ought to cleave to his wife. The reverse is true of those who are not in conjugial love.

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

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #4672

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4672. 'And he, still a boy' means at first. This is clear from the meaning of 'a boy' - when this expression is used to refer to a new Church - as at first, that is, as the first state of that Church. For the Church is like an infant, a boy, a man, and at length an old man, in that it passes as the individual does through its own phases of life. The Church also resembles the human being in general, and is actually called one. Furthermore, within the Church which is called 'a boy' because of the phase it is at, and which is by nature such that it soon becomes wayward, the Lord is present at first, both with those who teach and those who learn. But after a while they dissociate themselves from Him, as is also represented by the brothers throwing Joseph into the pit and selling him.

[2] Every Church which begins with faith is like this, but a Church beginning with charity is different. A Church that begins with faith is controlled solely by the understanding, and the understanding by that which has been inherited, namely self-love and love of the world. These loves induce the understanding to gather texts from the Word which support their desires, and to give its own interpretation to those which do not support them. It is different in the case of a Church which begins with charity. This Church is controlled by good, the Lord being within that good. For good which is the good of charity and love is a mediator between the Lord and faith; and unless it is there as a mediator between them no spiritual communication is possible. Without that intermediary He cannot possibly flow into faith. If evil exists there instead of good it drives away the Lord and casts aside or else perverts everything that is the Lord's and so the whole of faith; for faith comes from Him through good.

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