The Bible

 

Luke 1:26-38 : The Annunciation to Mary

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26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,

27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.

31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.

32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #637

Study this Passage

  
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637. In those earliest times all in that Christian world acknowledged that the Lord Jesus Christ was God, and to Him was given all power in heaven and on earth, and power over all flesh, as His actual words declare (Matthew 28:18; John 17:2). They believed in Him in accordance with His command from God the Father (John 3:15-16, 36; 6:40; 11:25-26). This same fact is also evident from the summoning of all the bishops by the emperor Constantine the Great, in order that Arius and his followers, who denied the divinity of the Lord the Saviour born of the Virgin Mary, should be convicted and condemned on the authority of scripture. This they succeeded in doing, but in avoiding the wolf they ran into the lion; or, as the proverb has it, the man who seeks to avoid Charybdis runs into Scylla. They devised the fiction of a Son of God from eternity, who came down and took upon Himself a human form, believing that they were thus claiming back and restoring His divinity to the Lord. But they did not know that God the Creator of the universe Himself came down in order to become the Redeemer, and thus a second Creator, as is clearly stated in the Old Testament (Isaiah 25:9; 40:3, 5, 10-11; 43:14; 44:6, 24; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7, 26; 60:16; 63:16; Jeremiah 50:34; Hosea 13:4; Psalms 19:14; add to these John 9:15 1 ).

Footnotes:

1. A wrong reference; possibly to be corrected to John 1:15.

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