Arcana Coelestia # 131
131. Genesis 2:18-25
18. And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man 1 should be alone. I will make for him a help suitable for him.
19. And Jehovah God formed out of the ground every beast of the field, and every bird of the air, 2 and He brought it to the man to see what he would call it; and whatever the man called it, the living creature, 3 that was its name.
20. And the man gave names to every beast, and to the birds of the air, 2 and to every wild animal of the field; but for man there was not found a help suitable for him.
21. And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he fell asleep; and He took one of his ribs, and He closed up the flesh in its place.
22. And Jehovah God built the rib which He took from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.
23. And the man said, By this change, it is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh; for this she will be called Wife, because she was taken out of man (vir).
24. Therefore a man (vir) will leave his father and his mother and will cling to his wife, and they will be one flesh.
25. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.
CONTENTS
The subject is the descendants of the Most Ancient Church, who set their heart on the proprium.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. Unless otherwise indicated man in these verses 18-25 represents the Latin homo.
2. literally, bird of the heavens (or the skies)
3. literally, the living soul
One
A company might have executives setting policy and strategy, engineers designing products, managers handling personnel and others handling various functions. They all do different things -- but if they're doing them with a shared underlying purpose, the company -- and the individuals in it -- will likely be successful. The Lord wants all human society to function in a similar way. We have different skills and individual loves, but if we all share a mutual love -- a love of serving others -- then society will function as one, will be a reflection of heaven and will be a good receptacle for the Lord's love. This can also happen within each of us, as we unify our talents and ideas around a central love. And in an abstract sense, it illustrates how a wide collection of varying ideas can be unified around a shared good intention. That is the kind of love pictured when “one” is used in the Bible, either as a specific number or in the sense of several people or objects “being one.” In more casual references -- when used to identify a specific person or object -- the meaning is relatively literal, and is connected to that person or object.
