De Bijbel

 

Genesis 1:20

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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.

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Six

  

Like most numbers in the Bible, "six" can have various meanings depending on context, but has a couple that are primary. When used in relation to time -- six days, six hours, six years, etc. -- six generally represents a state of labor, struggle and conflict, especially the conflict involved with spiritual growth. The six days of creation, for instance, represent the stages we go through in our lives, working toward the peaceful seventh day, in which our evil desires are removed from us and we can rest. In most other references, six represents all desires for good and all the true ideas that come from those desires for good -- or in the contrary sense, all evil and all the resulting false thinking.

Van Swedenborgs Werken

 

Heaven and Hell #136

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136. Like people on earth, angels have discernment and volition. Heaven's light produces their cognitive life because heaven's light is divine truth and the divine wisdom that comes from it; while heaven's warmth produces their volitional life because heaven's warmth is the divine good and the divine love that comes from it. The quintessential life of angels is from the warmth, but not from the light except to the extent that there is warmth in it. We can see that life comes from the warmth because when the warmth is taken away life dies. It is the same for faith without love or for truth without goodness, since the truth that is attributed to faith is light and the goodness that is attributed to love is warmth. 1

All this becomes even clearer from the warmth and light of our world, to which heaven's warmth and light correspond. From the warmth of our world, united to its light, all things on earth come to life and blossom. They are united in spring and summer. However, nothing comes to life or blooms from light separated from warmth - everything languishes and dies. They are disunited in winter, when the warmth is gone but the light remains. It is from this correspondence that heaven is called a paradise, because there the true is united to the good, or faith to love, as light is united to warmth in springtime on earth.

This gives even clearer support to the truth discussed above in 13-19, that the Lord's divine nature in heaven is love for him and thoughtfulness toward one's neighbor.

Voetnoten:

1. [Swedenborg's footnote] Truths apart from what is good are not truths intrinsically because they do not have any life; in fact, all the life of things true is from what is good: 9603; so they are like a body without a soul: 3180, 9454 [9154?]. Truths without good are not accepted by the Lord: 4368. The nature of truth apart from goodness, and therefore the nature of faith without love; and the nature of heartfelt truth and therefore the nature of faith from love: 1949-1951, 1964, 5830, 5951. It boils down to the same thing whether you say "truth" or "faith," "good" or "love," because truth is an attribute of faith and goodness is an attribute of love: 2839, 4353 [4352?], 4997, 7178, 7623-7624, 10367.

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