5200. 'And fat-fleshed' means which are embodiments of charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'fat' or 'fatness' as that which is celestial and which is used here to refer to good which flows from love and charity, dealt with in 353; and from the meaning of 'flesh' as the will part of the mind when made living by good received from the Lord, 148, 149, 780, 999, 3812, 3813, and thus also good which flows from love and charity. From this it follows that 'fat-fleshed' means matters of charity, while 'beautiful in appearance' means matters of faith. Thus the truths belonging to the natural, meant by 'the cows', are described here - what they are so far as form is concerned and what they are essentially. In form they are matters of faith, in essence they are matters of charity. The truth of this cannot be seen from the sense of the letter.

780. 'Of all flesh in which there was the spirit of life ¹ means a new creature, or the fact that they received new life from the Lord. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'flesh' as all mankind in general and a bodily-minded person in particular, as stated and shown already. Consequently 'flesh in which there was the spirit of life' ¹ means a person who has been regenerated, for the Lord's life, which is the life of charity and faith, is there within his proprium. Nobody is anything more than flesh, but when the life of charity and faith is breathed into him by the Lord, his flesh in that case is made alive, becomes spiritual and celestial, and is called 'a new creature', Mark 16:15, from having been created anew.

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