Bibeln

 

John 1

Studie

1 From the first he was the Word, and the Word was in relation with God and was God.

2 This Word was from the first in relation with God.

3 All things came into existence through him, and without him nothing was.

4 What came into existence in him was life, and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light goes on shining in the dark; it is not overcome by the dark.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7 He came for witness, to give witness about the light, so that all men might have faith through him.

8 He himself was not the light: he was sent to give witness about the light.

9 The true light, which gives light to every man, was then coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, the world which came into being through him, but the world had no knowledge of him.

11 He came to the things which were his and his people did not take him to their hearts.

12 To all those who did so take him, however, he gave the right of becoming children of God--that is, to those who had faith in his name:

13 Whose birth was from God and not from blood, or from an impulse of the flesh and man's desire.

14 And so the Word became flesh and took a place among us for a time; and we saw his glory--such glory as is given to an only son by his father--saw it to be true and full of grace.

15 John gave witness about him, crying, This is he of whom I said, He who is coming after me is put over me because he was in existence before me.

16 From his full measure we have all been given grace on grace.

17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and the true way of life are ours through Jesus Christ.

18 No man has seen God at any time; the only Son, who is on the breast of the Father, he has made clear what God is.

19 And this is the witness of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to him with the question, Who are you?

20 He said quite openly and straightforwardly, I am not the Christ.

21 And they said to him, What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And his answer was, I am not.

22 So they said to him, Who are you then? We have to give some answer to those who sent us. What have you to say about yourself?

23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the waste land, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet.

24 Those who had been sent came from the Pharisees.

25 And they put this question to him, saying, Why then are you giving baptism if you are not the Christ, or Elijah, or the prophet?

26 John's answer was: I give baptism with water; but there is one among you of whom you have no knowledge;

27 It is he who is coming after me; I am not good enough to undo his shoes.

28 These things took place at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was giving baptism.

29 The day after, John sees Jesus coming to him and says, See, here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

30 This is he of whom I said, One is coming after me who is put over me because he was in existence before me.

31 I myself had no knowledge of him, but I came giving baptism with water so that he might be seen openly by Israel.

32 And John gave this witness, saying, I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove and resting on him.

33 I had no knowledge who he was, but he who sent me to give baptism with water said to me, The one on whom you see the Spirit coming down and resting, it is he who gives baptism with the Holy Spirit.

34 This I saw myself and my witness is that he is the Son of God.

35 The day after, John was there again with two of his disciples;

36 And looking at Jesus while he was walking he said, See, there is the Lamb of God!

37 Hearing what he said, the two disciples went after Jesus.

38 And Jesus, turning round, saw them coming after him and said to them, What are you looking for? They said to him, Rabbi (which is to say, Master), where are you living?

39 He said to them, Come and see. They went with him then and saw where he was living; and they were with him all that day: it was then about the tenth hour of the day.

40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two men who, hearing what John said, went after Jesus.

41 Early in the morning he came across his brother and said to him, We have made discovery! It is the Messiah! (which is to say, the Christ).

42 And he took him to Jesus. Looking at him fixedly Jesus said, You are Simon, the son of John; your name will be Cephas (which is to say, Peter).

43 The day after this, Jesus had a desire to go into Galilee. He came across Philip and said to him, Come and be my disciple.

44 Now Philip's town was Beth-saida, where Andrew and Peter came from.

45 Philip came across Nathanael and said to him, We have made a discovery! It is he of whom Moses, in the law, and the prophets were writing, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

46 Nazareth! said Nathanael, Is it possible for any good to come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, come and see.

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, See, here is a true son of Israel in whom there is nothing false.

48 Nathanael said to him, Where did you get knowledge of me? In answer Jesus said, Before Philip was talking with you, while you were still under the fig-tree, I saw you.

49 Nathanael said to him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are King of Israel!

50 In answer Jesus said to him, You have faith because I said to you, I saw you under the fig-tree. You will see greater things than these.

51 And he said to him, Truly I say to you all, You will see heaven opening and God's angels going up and coming down on the Son of man.

Från Swedenborgs verk

 

True Christian Religion #351

Studera detta avsnitt

  
/ 853  
  

351. (ii) The truths of faith are arranged into groupings, and thus, so to speak, into bundles, a fact that up to the present has been unknown. The reason for this ignorance is that the spiritual truths, out of which the whole of the Word is woven, have been rendered invisible, because of the mystical and enigmatic faith which plays the leading role in present-day theology. As a result, they have sunk into the ground like silos.

It needs to be explained what is meant by groupings and bundles. The first chapter of this book, dealing with God the Creator, is divided into grouped topics, the first of which is on the oneness of God; the second is on the being of God, that is, Jehovah; the third on the infinity of God; the fourth on the essence of God, which is Divine love and Divine wisdom; the fifth on the omnipotence of God; and the sixth on creation. The separate points in each make up the grouping; they tie together the contents, as it were into handfuls. These groupings in common and in particular, so both taken all together and individually, contain truths, which in proportion to their volume and coherence raise the level of faith and bring it to perfection.

[2] If anyone is unaware that the human mind is organised, or is a spiritual organism terminating in a natural organism, in which and controlled by which the mind operates on its ideas or thinks, he cannot help holding the opinion that perceptions, thoughts and ideas are merely rays and variations of light falling upon the head and presenting forms which he sees and acknowledges as reasons. But this is nonsense, for everyone knows that the head is filled with brains, the brains are organised, and the mind lives in them, and its ideas are fixed and remain in it as they are received and proved. So the question is, what sort of organisation is there? The answer is that everything is arranged into groupings, as it were into bundles, and this is how the truths that make up faith are arranged in the human mind. This fact can be illustrated by the following considerations.

[3] The brain consists of two substances, one glandular, called the cortical and grey matter; the other is fibrillary and is called the medullary substance. The first substance, the glandular one, is arranged in clusters like grapes on a vine; these clusters are its groupings. The second substance, called medullary, is composed of continuous bundles of fibres projecting from the glands of the first substance. These bundles are its groupings. All the nerves, which project from those and lead down into the body to perform various functions, are simply handfuls and bundles of fibres; so too are all the muscles, and generally speaking all the viscera and organs of the body. Both classes are of such a nature because they correspond to the groupings in which the mind is organised.

[4] Moreover throughout Nature there is nothing which is not composed of bunches to form groupings. Every tree, every bush, plant and vegetable, indeed every ear of corn or blade of grass is both generally and in detail so constructed. The universal cause of this is that this is the way Divine truths are structured; for we read that all things were created by the Word, that is, by Divine truth, and that the world too was made by the Word (John 1:1ff). These facts can allow us to see that, if the human mind did not contain such an orderly arrangement of substances, human beings would not possess any powers of analytical reasoning. Everyone has such powers in proportion to the orderly arrangement of his mind, and so in proportion to the volume of truths cohering as it were in a bundle; and this arrangement depends upon his free use of his reason.

  
/ 853  
  

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