42. Verse 21 And God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that creeps, which the waters produced abundantly according to their kinds; and all winged birds according to their kinds; and God saw that it was good.

As has been stated, 'fish' means facts, here facts quickened and brought to life through faith from the Lord. 'Sea monsters' means those facts' general sources, below which and from which details derive. Nothing whatever exists in the universe that does not depend on some general source for its commencement and continuance. In the Prophets sea monsters or whales are mentioned several times, and in those places they mean those general sources of facts. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who represents human wisdom or intelligence - that is, knowledge in general - is called 'a great sea monster', as in Ezekiel,

Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster lying in the midst of his ¹ rivers, who has said, It is my river and I have made myself. Ezekiel 29:3.

[2] And elsewhere in Ezekiel,

Raise a lamentation over Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and say to him, You are like a monster in the seas, and you have come forth in your rivers, and have troubled the waters with your feet. Ezekiel 32:2

These words mean people who wish to penetrate the mysteries that are part of faith by means of facts, and so from themselves. In Isaiah,

On that day Jehovah will make a visitation with His hard and great and strong sword upon Leviathan the full-length serpent, ² and upon Leviathan the twisting serpent, and He will slay the monsters that are in the sea. Isaiah 27:1.

'Slaying the monsters in the sea' means preventing people's knowing facts even in their general aspects. In Jeremiah,

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel has devoured me, he has troubled me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a sea monster, he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has cast me out. Jeremiah 51:34.

This stands for the fact that mankind did swallow cognitions of faith, which are 'the delicacies' here, just as the sea monster swallowed up Jonah. In that story the sea monster stands for people who treat general cognitions of faith as mere facts, and behave accordingly.

Poznámky pod čarou:

3020. 'Who administered all that he had' means the functions of the natural man. This is clear from the meaning of 'administering', and in particular of 'administering all things', as performing functions or duties. The relationship of the natural man to the rational, or what amounts to the same, of the external man to the internal, is like that of one who administers in a house, see 1795. All things in man are like one house, that is, one family, for there is one who has the duty to be head of the family, and others who have the duty of servants. The rational mind itself is the one that organizes everything, like the head of the family, and by influx brings order into the natural mind. The natural mind however is one that serves and administers. And because the natural mind is distinct and separate from the rational mind, existing on a level below the latter, and also in a sense acts independently, it is called in relationship to the rational 'the servant, the oldest of the house' and 'the one who administered all that he had there'.

[2] The fact that the natural mind is distinct and separate from the rational, existing on a level below it, and in a sense acting independently, becomes clear from the things it has within it, and from the functions it performs. The things it has within it are all facts, and so also all cognitions of every kind - in short, every single thing belonging to the exterior or physical memory, dealt with in 2471, 2480. To this memory also belongs the whole faculty of imagination, which constitutes man's interior sensory awareness and is particularly active with children and during the early stages of adolescence. To the exterior memory belong in addition all the natural affections which man has in common with animals. From this it is evident what the functions of the natural mind are.

[3] The rational mind however is interior. The items of knowledge it has within it, that is to say, every single thing belonging to the interior memory, are not evident to man, but are imperceptible during his lifetime, dealt with in 2470-2474, 2489, 2490. It also has within it the power of thought, which is a perceptivity of what is fair and righteous, as well as of what is true and good. In addition it has all the spiritual affections which are strictly human and which mark man off from animals. From these things within itself the rational mind flows into the natural mind and activates the things that are there, views them with a certain vision, and in this way forms judgements and conclusions. The fact that these two minds are distinct and separate is quite evident from this consideration: With many people the natural mind has dominion over the rational mind, or what amounts to the same, the external man has dominion over the internal; yet it does not have dominion and is subservient only with those in whom the good of charity is present, that is, who allow themselves to be led by the Lord.