圣经文本

 

Genesis第1章

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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.

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#34

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34. Love and faith cannot possibly be separated for they constitute one and the same thing. This is why, when first the [great] lights are dealt with and they are taken to be one, it is said [using a singular verb with a plural noun], 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens'. Let some marvels relating to this be mentioned here. Since celestial angels possess from the Lord that kind of love, they possess by virtue of that love every cognition of faith, and by virtue of that love the kind of life and light of understanding that almost defies description altogether. On the other hand spirits who without love have a knowledge of the doctrinal matters concerning faith live such cold lives and are in such dull light that they cannot approach even the outer gateway to heaven before running off in the opposite direction. Some claim to have believed in the Lord, but they have not lived according to His teaching. The Lord refers to these people in Matthew as follows,

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does My will. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? and so on. Matthew 7:21-22-end.

[2] From this is clear that those who have love have faith as well, and so heavenly life, whereas those who claim to have faith and yet have none of the life inherent in love do not. The life of faith devoid of love is like sunlight devoid of warmth, as is the case in wintertime when nothing grows and every single thing is inactive and dies off. But faith deriving from love is like the sunlight in springtime when everything grows and blossoms, for it is the warmth of the sun that brings it out. It is similar with spiritual and celestial things, which are normally represented in the Word by the things found in the world and on earth. An absence of faith, and faith devoid of love, are also compared by the Lord to winter where He foretold the close of the age in Mark,

Pray that your flight may not happen in winter, for those will be days of affliction. Mark 13:18-19.

'Flight' means the final period, also the time when a person dies; 'winter' is life which is destitute of love, 'days of affliction' his wretched condition in the next life.

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

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Arcana Coelestia#5660

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5660. 'And we are causing other silver to come down in our hand to buy food' means that the mind is set on acquiring good through truth from some other source. This is clear from the meaning of 'silver' as truth, dealt with just above in 5657, and as 'silver' means truth, some other truth and therefore truth from some other source is meant by 'other silver' (for no other truth that is genuine truth exists apart from that received from the Lord, who gives it freely, so that there is no other source than He from which real truth is derived); and from the meaning of 'causing to come down' as a mind set on acquiring - on acquiring the good of truth, which is meant by the grain they bought. The story told in the sense of the letter implies that the other silver came to Joseph, for the purchase of food from him and so from no other source. But the internal sense is not subject to any limitation set by the story told in the sense of the letter indeed it is not concerned with that sense, only with the real matter under discussion here, which is this: If they were to make themselves subservient like slaves owing to the fact that some truths were freely given within the exterior natural, they would from some other source acquire good through truth. This idea also forms the train of thought in the internal sense, for immediately after this the words 'we do not know who put the silver in our pouches' are used, meaning their lack of belief because they did not know where truth present in the exterior natural came from.

[2] Something like this happens in the next life in the case of spirits who are being introduced by means of truths into good, especially into this - that everything good and true flows in from the Lord. When they learn that everything they think or will flows into them, so that they themselves cannot be the source of their thinking and willing, they fight all they can against the idea. For they believe that, if this idea is true, they cannot have any life within themselves that is entirely their own and that all delight is therefore destroyed, for they make the existence of separate selfhood vital to delight. Furthermore those spirits think that if they do not have any power entirely their own to do what is good and to believe what is true, they must let their hands hang down, not do or think anything on their own initiative, and wait for influx. They are allowed to go on thinking in this kind of way until they reach the point when they almost decide that they do not want to receive what is good and true from such influx but from some other source which does not involve their being deprived in this manner of their selfhood. Sometimes they are even allowed to make enquiries about where they may find that kind of goodness and truth. But when after this they do not find such goodness and truth anywhere, those who are being regenerated come back and freely choose to let the Lord lead their will and thought. They are also told at the same time that they are going to receive a heavenly selfhood such as the angels possess, and along with this the gift of everlasting bliss and happiness.

[3] As regards this heavenly selfhood, it is a product of the new will conferred by the Lord. It is different from the selfhood properly man's own, in that those who have received that heavenly selfhood no longer see only themselves in every single thing they do or in every single thing they learn about and convey to others. Instead they see their neighbour, the general public, the Church, the Lord's kingdom, and so the Lord Himself. The ends they have in life are what undergo change; for ends which have lower things - namely self and the world - in view are removed and higher ones introduced to replace them. Ends in life are nothing else than the actual life in a person, for a person's ends in view are the things that his will desires. They are also the actual loves present in him, for what a person loves is what his will desires and what constitute his end in view. The person who is given a heavenly selfhood enjoys too a state of serenity and peace, for he trusts in the Lord and believes that no evil at all can come to touch him, knowing too that no strong evil desires can molest him. More than that, those who have received a heavenly selfhood enjoy true freedom; for being led by the Lord constitutes freedom since one is then led within the sphere of good, from good, and to good. From this it becomes clear that they enjoy bliss and happiness, for nothing exists to disturb them - no self-love at all, consequently no enmity, hatred, or vengeance at all; nor any love of the world at all, consequently no deceitfulness, fear, or unease at all.

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