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Exploring the Meaning of Genesis 10

原作者: New Christian Bible Study Staff, John Odhner

These chapters - with all the "begats" - don't seem to add a lot to the Bible reading experience. But... guess what! They're actually kind of interesting on the inside. This chapter actually describes the spread, and then the spiritual decline, of the Ancient Church.

In his exegesis, or explanation, of the kinds of religious thinking that the various people represent, Swedenborg provides some insight into human history, and into patterns of thought in our own lives, too.

Here are some excerpts from Swedenborg's "Arcana Coelestia":

AC 1130. The subject treated of throughout this whole chapter is the Ancient Church, and its propagation (verse 1).

AC 1131. They who had external worship corresponding to internal are the "sons of Japheth" (verse 2). They who had worship more remote from internal are the "sons of Gomer and Javan" (verses 3, 4). And they who had worship still more remote are the "isles of the nations" (verse 5).

AC 1132. They who cultivated knowledges, memory-knowledges, and rituals, and separated them from things internal, are the "sons of Ham" (verse 6). They who cultivated the knowledges of spiritual things are the "sons of Cush;" and they who cultivated the knowledges of celestial things are the "sons of Raamah" (verse 7).

AC 1133. Those treated of who have external worship in which are interior evils and falsities, "Nimrod" being such worship (verses 8, 9). The evils in such worship (verse 10). The falsities in such worship (verses 11, 12).

AC 1134. Concerning those who form for themselves new kinds of worship out of memory-knowledges by means of reasonings (verses 13, 14); and concerning those who make mere memory-knowledge of the knowledges of faith (verse 14).

AC 1135. Concerning external worship without internal, which is "Canaan," and the derivations of this worship (verses 15 to 18); and its extension (verses 19, 20).

AC 1136. Concerning internal worship, which is "Shem," and its extension even to the second Ancient Church (verse 21). Concerning internal worship and its derivations, which being from charity, are derivations of wisdom, of intelligence, of memory-knowledge, and of knowledges, which are signified by the "nations" (verses 22 to 24).

AC 1137. Concerning a certain church which arose in Syria, instituted by Eber, which is to be called the second Ancient Church, the internal worship of which is "Peleg," the external "Joktan" (verse 25). Its rituals are the nations named in verses 26 to 29. The extension of this church (verse 30).

AC 1138. That there were different kinds of worship in the Ancient Church, in accordance with the genius of each nation (verses 31, 32).

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Genesis第11章

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1 The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

2 It happened, as they traveled east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there.

3 They said one to another, "Come, let's make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.

4 They said, "Come, let's build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let's make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth."

5 Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.

6 Yahweh said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do.

7 Come, let's go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

8 So Yahweh scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city.

9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.

10 This is the history of the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old and became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood.

11 Shem lived five hundred years after he became the father of Arpachshad, and became the father of sons and daughters.

12 Arpachshad lived thirty-five years and became the father of Shelah.

13 Arpachshad lived four hundred three years after he became the father of Shelah, and became the father of sons and daughters.

14 Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber:

15 and Shelah lived four hundred three years after he became the father of Eber, and became the father of sons and daughters.

16 Eber lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg.

17 Eber lived four hundred thirty years after he became the father of Peleg, and became the father of sons and daughters.

18 Peleg lived thirty years, and became the father of Reu.

19 Peleg lived two hundred nine years after he became the father of Reu, and became the father of sons and daughters.

20 Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug.

21 Reu lived two hundred seven years after he became the father of Serug, and became the father of sons and daughters.

22 Serug lived thirty years, and became the father of Nahor.

23 Serug lived two hundred years after he became the father of Nahor, and became the father of sons and daughters.

24 Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of Terah.

25 Nahor lived one hundred nineteen years after he became the father of Terah, and became the father of sons and daughters.

26 Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

27 Now this is the history of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot.

28 Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees.

29 Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran who was also the father of Iscah.

30 Sarai was barren. She had no child.

31 Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. They went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there.

32 The days of Terah were two hundred five years. Terah died in Haran.