Arcana Coelestia # 866
866. 'A raven' means falsities. This in a general way becomes clear from what has been stated and shown already about birds meaning intellectual concepts, rational concepts, and facts, and in like manner the opposite of these, which are reasonings and falsities. Both sets of things are described in the Word by various species of birds, things of a true understanding by harmless, beautiful, and clean birds, those of a false understanding however by harmful, ugly, and unclean ones, each depending on the species of truth or falsity under description. Gross and impenetrable falsities are described by 'owls' and 'ravens' - by owls because they live in the darkness of the night, by ravens because they are black; as in Isaiah,
The owl and the raven will dwell in it. Isaiah 34:11.
Here the subject is the Jewish Church, and the fact that nothing but falsities, described as 'the owl and the raven', resided in it.
#72 What If Jesus Had Not Come? What Is Total Damnation?
Napsal(a) Jonathan S. Rose
Title: A Christmas/Winter Solstice Poem (Noah, Total Damnation)
Topic: First Coming
Summary: An exploration of what it would have been like if Jesus had not come into the world: failure of heaven, end of the world of spirits, extinction of the human race, and finally dissolution and scattering of hell.
This video is a part of the Spirit and Life Bible Study series, whose purpose is to look at the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible through a Swedenborgian lens.
References:
Genesis 6:5-18; 7:15-23; 8:15-22
Luke 13:31-33
John 16:33; 17:1-4