Swedenborg Arcana Caelestia Vol. I (1750)

III. Without such life, the Word, in its literal sense, is dead. The Word is like a human being, who, as is known in the Christian world, is both external and internal. The external man, separated from the internal, is merely a body, and thus dead; but it is the internal man who lives and gives the external its life. The internal man is his soul. Thus, the Word, considered only in its literal sense, is like a body without a soul.

IV. From the sense of the letter alone, when the mind clings only to that, it can never be seen that it contains such things. As for this first chapter of Genesis, from the literal sense, one understands nothing other than that it treats of the creation of the world and the Garden of Eden, which is called Paradise, and then of Adam as the first created man. Who would think otherwise? But that these contain secrets which have never yet been revealed will be sufficiently evident from what follows. Indeed, the first chapter of Genesis, in its internal sense, deals with the NEW CREATION of man, or his REGENERATION in general, and with the Most Ancient Church in particular, and in such a way that there is not the smallest word that does not represent, signify, and involve these truths.

V. But that this is so, no mortal could ever know unless from the Lord. Therefore, it is permitted to reveal in advance that, through the Lord's Divine Mercy, it has been granted me for some years now to be continuously and uninterruptedly in the company of spirits and angels, to hear them speaking and to speak with them in turn. From this, it has been given to me to hear and see wonderful things in the other life that have never entered into any man’s knowledge or idea. I have been instructed there regarding the diverse kinds of spirits, the state of souls after death, Hell—or the miserable state of the unfaithful—and Heaven—or the most happy state of the faithful—and above all, regarding the doctrine of faith that is acknowledged throughout the entire Heaven. Concerning these matters, by the Lord's Divine Mercy, more will be said in the following pages.

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CHAPTER ONE.

1. In the beginning, GOD created the Heaven and the Earth.
2. And the Earth was emptiness and void, and darkness was upon the faces of the abyss. And the SPIRIT of GOD was moving upon the faces 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 between the light and the darkness.