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:

'A temple' represents heaven and the church. The sacred place where the ark was, represents the inmost, or third heaven, and the church among people in the inmost principle, called the celestial church. The temple outside the sacred place represents the middle, or second heaven, and the church with people in similar principles, called the internal spiritual church. The inner court represents the outermost or first heaven, also the church with people in outer degrees, called the internal natural church. The outer court represents entrance into heaven.

'Temple,' as in Revelation 15:8, signifies divine truth, or the Word in the natural sense, in light and power from the divine truth in the spiritual sense.

'I saw no temple in it,' as in Revelation 21:22, does not mean that in the new church, which is New Jerusalem, there will be no temple, but that externals will not be separated from internals. This is because 'a temple' signifies the church regarding worship, and in the highest sense, the Lord Himself regarding the divine humanity, who should be worshiped. Because the whole church is from the Lord, it says, 'for the Lord God Omnipotent and the Lamb is the temple thereof,' which signifies the Lord in His divine humanity.

'Temple,' as in Luke 21:5-7, signifies the church at this day, in which there is no truth left remaining, and as a result, is at an end.

'Temple' signifies the higher heavens.

'Temple' signifies the Lord's divine human with respect to divine truth.

'The temple of His body,' as in John 2:21, signifies the divine truth from the divine good.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 630)