圣经文本

 

Genesis第3章

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1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made: and he said to the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said to the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know, that in the day ye eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened: and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise; she took of its fruit, and ate, and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked: and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made for themselves aprons.

8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

9 And the LORD God called to Adam, and said to him, Where art thou?

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden: and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, that thou shouldest not eat?

12 And the man said, The woman, whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.

13 And the LORD God said to the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.

14 And the LORD God said to the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

16 To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children: and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17 And to Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou shalt return to the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return.

20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

21 For Adam also and for his wife the LORD God made coats of skins, and clothed them.

22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man hath become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he should put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.

24 So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

   

来自斯威登堡的著作

 

Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion)#33

  
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33. What person of sound mind is there who cannot see that, by those things which are related of Adam are not meant any states of the first-formed man, but states of the Church? As, for example, that God placed two trees in the midst of the garden, from the eating of one of which man had eternal life, and from the other of which he had eternal death; and that He made the latter "good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired for giving understanding" ([Gen.] 3:6), thus as if it were to bewitch their souls; also, that he admitted the serpent, and allowed it to speak deceitful words to the woman in the presence of her husband, who was the image and likeness of God, and suffered them to be ensnared by its flatteries and arts; as, moreover, why it was not provided,-since it was foreseen-that they, and the whole human race from them, should not fall into the damnation of His curse; for we read in the Christian books of orthodoxy: "That, in consequence of this original sin, 'in place of the lost image of God, there is in man a most inward, most wicked, most profound, inscrutable, unspeakable corruption of his whole nature, and of all his powers,' and that it is the root of all actual evils (Formula Concordiae, p. 640)"; and that God the Father turned away that universal damnation from His face, and sent His Son into the world, who might take it on Himself, and thus appease [Him]; besides many other things which are, as everyone may see, inconsistent with God.

[2] Who may not, from the particulars above-mentioned understood in their historical sense, reasonably conclude, to use comparisons, that it would be like a person who gives his dependent a most fruitful field, and in it digs a pit, which he covers over with boards that fall inwards at the touch of a hand or foot; and, in the midst, places upon a stand a harlot clothed in crimson and scarlet, holding in her hand a golden cup (like the woman in Rev. 17:4), who, by her blandishments, allures the man to herself, and so brings it to pass that he falls into the pit and is drowned? Would it not, indeed, be like one who makes a present to his friend of a luxuriant field of corn, and in the midst thereof conceals snares, and sends out a siren who, with the allurement of song and of a sweet voice, entices him to that place, and causes him to be entangled in the snare, from which he is unable to extricate his foot? Yea, to use a further comparison, it would be like a person who should introduce a noble guest into his house, in which there are two parlours, and tables in each of them, at one of which are seated angels, and at the other evil spirits, on the latter of which are cups full of sweet but poisoned wine, and dishes on which are viands containing aconite; and who should permit the evil spirits there to represent the orgies of Bacchus, and the follies of buffoons, and entice them to those foods and drinks.

[3] But, my friend, the things related of Adam, of the garden of God, and of the two trees therein, appear under quite a different aspect when spiritually comprehended, that is, unswathed by the spiritual sense. It is then clearly seen that, by Adam, as a type, is meant the Most Ancient Church; and the successive states of that Church are described by the vicissitudes of his life. For a Church, in the beginning, is like a man created anew, who has a natural and a spiritual mind, and by degrees from spiritual becomes natural, and at length sensual, and believes nothing but what the senses of the body dictate; and such a man appears in heaven like a person sitting on a beast, which bends its head backward, and with its teeth bites, tears and mangles the man sitting upon it; while the truly spiritual man appears in heaven also like a person sitting on a beast, but on a gentle one, which he controls with a slender rein, and even by a gesture.

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