De Bijbel

 

Genesis 1

Studie

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first Day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Van Swedenborgs Werken

 

Arcana Coelestia #17

Bestudeer deze passage

  
/ 10837  
  

17. Verse 2 And the earth was a void and an emptiness, and there was thick darkness over the face 1 of the deep; and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face 1 of the waters. The person who has yet to be regenerated is called 'a void and an empty earth', and also 'ground', in which no good or truth at all has been sown - 'void' where there is no good, and 'empty' where there is no truth. Consequently there is 'thick darkness', or stupidity and lack of knowledge about anything that has to do with faith in the Lord and so anything that has to do with spiritual and celestial life. This kind of person is described by the Lord through Jeremiah,

My people are foolish, they know Me not; they are stupid children, having no understanding; they are wise to do evil, and know not how to do good. I looked to the earth, and, behold, a void and an emptiness; and towards the heavens, and they had no light. Jeremiah 4:22-23, 25.

Voetnoten:

1. literally, the faces

  
/ 10837  
  

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

Van Swedenborgs Werken

 

Arcana Coelestia #7577

Bestudeer deze passage

  
/ 10837  
  

7577. 'And there was hail, and at the same time fire running down in the midst of the hail, extremely heavy' means firm beliefs in what is false together with desires for evil. This is clear from the meaning of 'hail' as falsity arising from evil, dealt with above in 7574, at this point firm belief in what is false since it says the hail was 'extremely heavy'; from the meaning of 'fire' as the desire for evil, dealt with just above in 7575; and from the meaning of 'running down in the midst' as being together. Indeed the desire for evil is at the centre, for the falsity emanates from it.

[2] What is being described here is the state of those belonging to the Church who molest the upright in the next life - their state when the things of the Church with them, that is, the forms of good and the truths which they have claimed to believe in, have been laid waste. That is to say, their state is now one in which firm but false beliefs together with evil desires reign; for this is what their state inwardly is like. Those false beliefs and evil desires are inseparable; for when evil takes hold in a person's life, falsity takes hold in his doctrine. When a person's life is taken hold of by evil, the situation may seem to him to be entirely different, for when people claim with their lips to believe in truths drawn from the Word or from the teachings of their Church they fancy that they have a belief in them. It even appears to them as though they do; but in fact they have no such belief if their life is evil. For either they claim with their lips to believe in things which are different from what they really think, or they think something is true because they have been told and persuaded to believe that it is, and this belief they hold on account of their desire for gain and important positions. This means that when they are no longer striving for important positions or seeking after gain that belief falls away, and then those people take hold of falsities that fit in with their evil desires. Falsities fitting in with evil desires are present inwardly with those who lead an evil life, no matter how much they may think that they are not. The truth of this is made thoroughly plain in the next life when everything external has been taken away and those kinds of people have been left to their inner selves. Falsities now erupt, both those which had played a part in their thinking in the world and those which had not evidently done so. For those falsities erupt from the evils which had been part of their life, falsities being nothing other than evils producing reasons to support and justify themselves. From all this one may see what the state of those people in the next life is like, namely a state in which firm beliefs in what is false together with desires for what is evil rule them.

  
/ 10837  
  

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