IBhayibheli

 

Genesis 1

Funda

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.

Okususelwe Emisebenzini kaSwedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #22

Funda lesi Sigaba

  
Yiya esigabeni / 10837  
  

22. Verse 5 And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.

What 'evening' means, and what 'morning', is recognized from what is said above. 'Evening' means every prior state, because it is a state of shade, that is, of falsity and of absence of faith, while 'morning' is every subsequent state, because it is one of light, that is, of truth and of cognitions of faith. 'Evening' in general means all the things that are man's own, whereas 'morning' means all those that are the Lord's, as is said through David,

The Spirit of Jehovah has spoken within me, and His word is upon my tongue. The God of Israel has said, the Rock of Israel has spoken to me. He is like the morning light, when the sun is rising on a cloudless morning, shining bright, as when after rain tender grass [springs up] from the earth. 2 Samuel 23:4.

Because 'evening' is a time when there is no faith, and 'morning' when there is, the Lord's Coming into the world is called 'the morning', and the time at which He comes, since faith does not exist at that point, is called 'the evening', as in Daniel,

The Holy One said to me, Up to the evening when it is becoming morning, two thousand three hundred times. Daniel 8:13-14.

In the Word, 'morning' stands in a similar way for every coming of the Lord, and so is a term describing the new creation.

  
Yiya esigabeni / 10837  
  

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

Okususelwe Emisebenzini kaSwedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #6844

Funda lesi Sigaba

  
Yiya esigabeni / 10837  
  

6844. Take off your shoes from upon your feet' means that the powers of the senses, which form the external levels of the natural, should be removed. This is clear from the meaning of 'shoes' as the powers of the senses forming the external levels of the natural, dealt with in 1748; and from the meaning of 'feet' as the natural, dealt with in 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952. 'Taking off' plainly means removing since one is talking about the powers of the senses. Particular expressions have to be used in application to the actual matter to which they refer; thus 'being taken off' is applied to shoes, and 'being removed' to the powers of the senses. The implications of all this need to be stated. Anyone can see that here 'shoes' represent something that does not accord with Him who is holy and Divine, so that 'taking off one's shoes' was representative of the removal of things like that. Without this representation what would it matter to the Divine whether a person drew near in shoes or in bare feet, provided that inwardly he is the kind of person who can draw near the Divine in faith and love? Therefore the powers of the senses are meant by 'shoes', and those powers, which form the external levels of the natural, are by nature such that they cannot remain when one thinks with reverence about the Divine. Consequently because it was a time when representatives had to be observed, Moses was not allowed to draw near with his shoes on.

[2] The reason why the powers of the senses that form the external levels of the natural are by nature such that they cannot receive the Divine is that they are steeped in ideas of worldly, bodily, and also earthly things because they are the first to receive them. Therefore sensory impressions contained in the memory as a result of the activity of the senses draw their nature from the light and heat of the world, and hardly at all from the light and heat of heaven. As a consequence they are the last things that can be regenerated, that is, receive something of the light of heaven. This explains why, when a person is ruled by his senses and sensory impressions control his thinking, he inevitably thinks of the Divine as he does of earthly things. If also he is ruled by evil those impressions make him think in ways altogether contrary to the Divine. When therefore a person thinks about the kinds of things that have to do with faith and love to God he is raised, if he is governed by good, from the powers of the senses which form the external levels of the natural to more internal levels, consequently from earthly and worldly things nearer to celestial and spiritual ones.

[3] This is something people do not know about, the reason being that they do not know that internal levels distinct and separate from external ones are present within them, or that thought exists on increasingly internal levels as well as on more external ones. And unaware of these things a person cannot reflect on them. But see what has been stated already about thought ruled by sensory impressions:

People whose thought is ruled by sensory impressions have little wisdom, 5084, 5089, 5094, 6201, 6310-6312, 6314, 6316, 6318, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624.

A person may be raised above the level of the senses, and when he is raised he comes into a quite gentle light; and this happens especially to those who are being regenerated, 6183, 6313, 6315.

All this now shows what is meant by 'taking off one's shoes from upon one's feet'. A person's natural divides into the external, the middle, and the internal, see 4570, 5118, 5126, 5497, 5649. The internal natural is meant by 'the feet', the middle natural by 'the soles', and the external by 'the shoes'.

  
Yiya esigabeni / 10837  
  

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