157. Because 'bone from bones and flesh from flesh' meant the proprium belonging to the external man which contained the internal man, all who could be called one' s own were in ancient times called 'bone from bones and flesh from flesh', whether they came from the same house or from the same family, or had some other family connection, as Laban said of Jacob,

Surely you are my bone and my flesh. Genesis 29:14.

Referring to his mother's brothers and to 'the family of the house of his mother's father' Abimelech said,

Remember that I am your bone and your flesh. Judges 9:1-3.

Also the tribes of Israel, in reference to themselves, told David,

Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. 2 Samuel 5:1.

851. That 'the ark rested' means regeneration becomes clear from the fact that 'the ark' means the member of this Church, and all that was in the ark means all that resided with that member, as shown extensively already. When therefore the ark is said 'to rest' it means that this member was being regenerated. The train of thought in the sense of the letter does indeed seem to imply that 'the ark's resting' means that the fluctuations following temptation, dealt with in the previous verse, have come to an end. But fluctuations, which are doubt and haziness concerning truths and goods, do not in that manner come to an end but persist for a long time, as will also be clear later on. From this it is clear that the continuity of thought in the internal sense is different. The substance of that thought, being arcana, can be revealed here, namely this: After he has undergone temptations the spiritual man becomes the Lord's 'rest' in the same way as the celestial man does. In the same way also he becomes 'the seventh', not however the seventh day, as the celestial man does, but 'the seventh month'. For details concerning the celestial man's being the Lord's rest or sabbath, and the seventh day, see 84-88. But as a celestial man and a spiritual man are different from each other the celestial man's rest is expressed in the original language by a word meaning the sabbath, whereas the spiritual man's rest is expressed by a different word, from which the name Noah derives which specifically means rest.