To “generate” something is to create it, and that idea underpins the meaning of a “generation” of people – it is a group that was created together, at roughly the same time, from the same parents or group of parents. According to Swedenborg, we can be “generators” on a spiritual level by using what we know from the Lord to create ideas of how to be good, and also to create good actions based on those ideas – what Swedenborg calls things of faith and things of charity.
In general, then, a “generation” in the Bible represents the spiritual ideas and activities created by a church – with a “church” being anything from an individual believer to a group lasting thousands of years.
“Generation” can also pick up specific meanings from context. For instance, when the Bible says the people of Israel were captive in Egypt for four generations, it means a state of temptation based on the meaning of “four.” When paired with “eternity,” meanwhile, “generations” represents ideas and actions surrounding the love of serving others, with “eternity” representing things springing from love of the Lord. Finally, “generations and generations” is used in the Bible to represent forever.
Passages from Swedenborg
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 613
613. That ‘members of his own generation’ has to do with faith is not evident from the sense of the letter, which sense is historical. Nevertheless because they are matters of a purely internal nature here, things that have to do with faith are meant. It is also clear from the train of thought that ‘generations’ here means nothing else. The same occurs several times in the Word, as in Isaiah,
Let those that be of you build the waste places of old; raise up the foundations of generation upon generation, and you will be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. Isa. 58:12.
All the details here mean things that have to do with faith. ‘The waste places of old’ means those on the celestial side of faith, ‘the foundations of generation upon generation’ at the same time meaning those on the spiritual side, and which had lapsed since ancient times. In the same prophet,
They will build up the waste places of old, they will raise up the former desolations, and they will renew the waste cities, the desolations of generation upon generation. Isa. 61:4.
Here the meaning is similar. In the same prophet,
They will not labour in vain, and they will not generate in sudden terror; for they will be the seed of the blessed of Jehovah, and their offspring with them. Isa. 65:27.
Here also ‘generating’ has reference to things that have to do with faith, and ‘labouring’ to those that have to do with love. ‘The seed of the blessed of Jehovah’ has reference to the latter, ‘offspring’ to the former.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 712
712. ‘For I have seen you to be a righteous man in this generation’ means possessing good by which he could be regenerated. This has been stated and shown at verse 9 of the previous chapter. There ‘righteous’ means the good which belongs to charity, and ‘upright’ the truth which belongs to it. There they were ‘generations’ because things of the understanding were the subject, but here it is ‘a generation’ because those of the will are the subject. For the will embraces things of the understanding, but the understanding does not embrace those of the will.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1856
1856. That ‘in the fourth generation they will return from here’ means the period of time and the state of restoration is clear from the meaning of ‘fourth generation’. ‘Fourth generation’ has the same meaning as forty and four hundred – namely the duration and the state of temptation, dealt with above at verse 13 – for four is a kind of diminutive of each of those numbers. Any number, whether large or small, provided it is a multiple of the same quantity, embodies the same meaning, as stated frequently already. That ‘the fourth generation’ does not mean any generation descended from Abram, or from Isaac, or from Jacob, is clear from the historical sections of the Word; for there were more than four generations, and these were very different from their fathers when they returned. ‘The fourth generation’ occurs again in other places, but in the internal sense it never means a generation. Here it means the period of time and the state of restoration because it means the conclusion of those things meant by forty and four hundred – see 862 and 1847.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 2020
2020. ‘Throughout their generations’ means the things that comprise faith. This is clear from the meaning of ‘generations’ as those things that are begotten and born from charity, that is, all things comprising faith, or what amounts to the same, all people who have been regenerated by the Lord, thus those with whom the faith inhering in charity is present. This will be discussed in the Lord’s Divine mercy later on. That in the internal sense generations and also nativities have this meaning has been shown in Volume One, in 613, 1041, 1145, 1330.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6239
6239. ‘And your offspring that you beget after them’ means interior truths and forms of good which are begotten later on. This is clear from the meaning of ‘offspring’ or ‘generation’ as matters of faith and charity, dealt with in 613, 2020, 2584, thus truths and forms of good; and from the meaning of ‘after them’ as interior ones which are begotten later on. The reason interior ones are meant is that what is begotten from the internal at a later time is more interior. For in every consecutive stage all that has already been begotten serves the internal as the means by which what is begotten subsequently can be introduced into a more interior position, for the internal raises the natural by degrees up to itself. This is evident from the birth of all that constitutes the understanding in a person. At first he is on the level of his senses; later on he rises to more and more internal levels until he arrives at full use of his understanding. Similar to this is the new generation or birth which is effected by means of faith and charity. Thus it is that a person is perfected by degrees; see what has been stated in 6183 about the gradual raising up to more interior levels when a person is being regenerated.
[2] In the Word ‘generation’ means things which have to do with faith and charity, for the reason that no generation other than that of a spiritual kind is meant in the internal sense. That kind of generation is also meant in David,
They will fear greatly, for God is in the generation of the righteous. Ps. 14:5.
‘The generation of the righteous’ stands for truths that flow from good, for righteousness is an attribute of good. In Isaiah, 41:4.
They will not labour in vain, and they will not produce offspring* in terror; they will be the seed of the blessed of Jehovah. Isa. 65:23.
In the same prophet,
Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Jehovah, am the first, and with the last I am the same. Isa. 41:4.
In Ezekiel,
Your tradings and your births’ are of the land of the Canaanite. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. As for your births,** on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, and you were not washed with water for Me to see. Ezek. 16:3, 4.
In these verses, which refer to the abominations of Jerusalem, it is quite evident that ‘generations’ or ‘births’ means generations in a spiritual sense.
[3] In Isaiah,
Awake as in the days of eternity, in the generations of eternity.*** Isa. 51:9.
‘The days of eternity’ stands for the state and time of the Most Ancient Church. The expression ‘eternity’ is used in reference to that Church because the good of love to the Lord reigned in it, and that good, since it flows directly from the Lord, is called eternal. ‘The generations of eternity’ stands for the forms of good that spring from that good.
[4] Something similar to this appears in Moses,
Remember the days of eternity, understand the years of generation after generation. Deut. 32:7.
‘The days of eternity’ stands for the state and time of the Most Ancient Church which existed before the Flood and was a celestial Church. ‘The years of generation after generation’ stands for the state and time of the Ancient Church which existed after the Flood and was a spiritual Church. Those Churches are the subject at that point in Moses.
[5] In Joel,
Judah will abide into eternity, and Jerusalem into generation after generation. Joel 3:20.
‘Eternity’ is used in reference to Judah because ‘Judah’ represents the celestial Church, 3881, and ‘generation after generation’ is used in reference to Jerusalem because by ‘Jerusalem’ is meant the spiritual Church, 402.
[6] In Isaiah,
My righteousness will exist into eternity, and My salvation into each generation.**** Isa. 51:8.
Here ‘eternity’ has reference to the good of love, for the word ‘righteousness’ is used in connection with that good, 612, 2235, and ‘generation’ has reference to the good of faith.
[7] In David,
Your kingdom is a kingdom to all eternity,***** and Your dominion to every generation after generation. Ps. 145:13.
Here the meaning is similar, for unless ‘eternity’ had had reference to what was celestial, and ‘generation’ to what was spiritual, one expression alone would have been used. The use of two would be pointless repetition.
[8] Things that have to do with a state of faith are also meant in the laws which forbade one who was illegitimate, down to the tenth generation of his descendants, to come into the assembly of Jehovah, Deut. 23:2, or an Ammonite or Moabite, down to the tenth generation of his descendants, Deut. 23:3; and in the law which allowed the third generation of an Edomite or Egyptian to come into the assembly of Jehovah, Deut. 23:8. Things that have to do with a state of faith are meant similarly in the Ten Commandments, where it says that Jehovah God will visit the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, on the third and the fourth generation, inasmuch as they hate Him, Exod. 20:5.
[9] The reason why forms of faith and charity are meant by ‘generations’ is that in the spiritual sense no other kinds of offspring are meant than those associated with regeneration or one who has been regenerated. Similarly with references in the Word to birth, bearing. and conception; forms of faith and charity are meant, see 1145, 1255, 3860, 3863, 4668, 5160, 5598.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6888
6888. ‘And this is My memorial from one generation to another means that It is to be worshipped perpetually. This is clear from the meaning of ‘memorial’ as that which should be called to mind, and – when used in connection with the Divine – as His essential nature called to mind in worship; and from the meaning of ‘one generation to another as perpetually. In the Word the expressions ‘forever’* and ‘to all generations’* are used, sometimes in the same verse. The reason for this is that ‘forever’ has reference to Divine Good, and ‘all generations’ to Divine Truth.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 8626
8626. ‘The war of Jehovah will be against Amalek from generation to generation’ means that by the Lord’s Divine power they have been subjugated and cast into hell, out of which they can never rise up. This is clear from the meaning of ‘the war of Jehovah’ as being cast into hell; and from the meaning of ‘from generation to generation’ as everlastingly, so that they can never rise up out of it.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 9789
9789. ‘For their generations among the children of Israel’ means eternity for the spiritual kingdom. This is clear from the meaning of ‘generations’ as eternity, dealt with below; and from the meaning of ‘the children of Israel’ as the spiritual Church, dealt with in 9340, thus also the spiritual kingdom. For the Lord’s spiritual kingdom in heaven is the spiritual heaven; on earth it is the spiritual Church. The reason why ‘generations’ means eternity is that in the internal sense generations of faith and charity are meant, 613, 2020, 2584, 6239, 9042, 9079, and so things of heaven and the Church, which things are eternal. Also the children of Israel, to whom the word ‘generations’ applies, mean the Church, 9340. The fact that eternity is meant by ‘generations’ is evident from the following places in the Word: In Isaiah,
My righteousness will exist to eternity, and My salvation from generation to generation.* Awake as in the days of old, the generations of eternity.** Isa. 51:8, 9.
In the same prophet,
I will make you an eternal magnificence,*** a joy of generation after generation. Isa. 60:15.
In the same prophet,
Its smoke will go up to eternity. From generation to generation it will be laid waste; no one will pass through it for ever and ever.**** Isa. 34:10.
In David,
The counsel of Jehovah will stand to eternity, the thoughts of His heart to all generations.***** Ps. 33:11.
In the same author,
I will praise Your name to eternity and forever.****** Generation to generation will praise Your works. Ps. 145:2-4.
In the same author,
They will fear You with the sun, and before the moon, from generation to generation.******* Ps. 72:5.
In Moses,
This is My name to eternity, and this is My memorial from one generation to another.******** Exod. 3:15.
There are very many other places besides these. When it says that things will exist ‘to eternity’ and from ‘generation to generation’, ‘eternity’ has regard to the Divine Celestial or Good, and ‘generation’ to the Divine Spiritual or Truth. For in the Word, especially the prophetic part, two expressions that have reference to one and the same thing are very frequently used, as in the places quoted above in which eternity and generation to generation occur. They are used because of the heavenly marriage that is present in every single part of the Word. The heavenly marriage is a marriage of good and truth, or the Lord and heaven joined together, see the places referred to in 9263.
Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 10144
10144. ‘Throughout your generations’ means what is everlasting in the Church. This is clear from the meaning of ‘generations’, when this word refers to the children of Israel, as succeeding stages within the Church; for the Church is meant by ‘the children of Israel’, and the consecutive ages of it by ‘generations’. But the latter also means spiritual generations, which are stages of faith and love, and so are phases of the Church. And in addition ‘throughout generations’ means what is everlasting, thus also consecutive stages.
By ‘the children of Israel’ the Church is meant, see the places referred to in 9340.
By ‘generations’ matters of faith and love are meant, 2020, 2584, 6239; also what is everlasting and eternal, 9789; thus consecutive stages, 9845.