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Genesis 26:8

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8 ἐγένετο δὲ πολυχρόνιος ἐκεῖ παρακύψας δὲ αβιμελεχ ὁ βασιλεὺς γεραρων διὰ τῆς θυρίδος εἶδεν τὸν ισαακ παίζοντα μετὰ ρεβεκκας τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτοῦ

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Arcana Coelestia # 3404

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3404. 'Isaac sowed in that land' means interior truths from the Lord as they appear to the rational. This is clear from the meaning of 'sowing' in the highest sense as Divine Truth from the Lord who is the Sower, 3038, and in the internal sense as the truth and good residing with a person, which stem from that Divine Truth, 3373; and from the meaning of 'land' as rational concepts which, when enlightened from the Divine, are appearances of truth, 3368, or what amounts to the same, are interior truths from the Lord as they appear to the rational. These appearances or truths belong on a higher degree, for as far as verse 14 it is these that are the subject in the internal sense. These appearances of truth are the kind that exist with angels, and are such as go immeasurably above anyone's understanding as long as he lives in the world.

[2] To make it clearer still what appearances of truth are, let the following example be added: It is well known that the Divine is infinite as regards Being (Esse) and eternal as regards Manifestation (Existere), and that what is finite is incapable of comprehending what is infinite, or indeed of comprehending what is eternal, since what is eternal is the Manifestation (Existere) of what is infinite. And because the Divine itself is infinite and eternal, so are all things which proceed from the Divine infinite and also eternal. And as those things are infinite angels are quite incapable of grasping them, for they too are finite beings. That being so, things that are infinite and eternal present themselves to angels within appearances that are finite, though within appearances such as are very far above the range of what man can comprehend. For example, man is quite incapable of possessing any idea of what is eternal except from what is temporal. And being incapable of having any idea other than this he is incapable of comprehending what 'from eternity' is and so what the Divine prior to the existence of time or creation of the world is. And as long as his thinking contains any idea at all that is formed from what is temporal, he slips inevitably, if he thinks about what is eternal, into errors from which he cannot be rescued. But the angels, whose ideas are not formed from anything temporal but from timeless state, are enabled to perceive it supremely well, for to them eternity is not eternity of time but eternity of state devoid of any idea of that which is temporal.

[3] From this one may see what the appearances existing with angels are like compared with man's, and how superior their appearances are to man's. For man cannot have one shred of thought, not even the least shred, that is not in some way temporal and spatial in origin, whereas angels' thought has no such origin at all. Instead their thought has its origin in timeless state, in which the being (esse) and the manifestation (existere) of things is the only consideration. These few comments show the nature of the appearances of truth which are the subject in these verses, and that these appearances belong to a higher degree. The verses that follow deal in order with the appearances of truth that belong to a lower degree which are also suitable to the human race.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia # 2016

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2016. To say that the Lord is the source of all good, and from this of all truth, is to express an unchanging truth. Angels see this truth with perception, so clearly that they perceive that insofar as anything is derived from the Lord it is good and true, and insofar as anything is derived from themselves it is evil and false. They also confess this truth before souls newly arrived there, and before spirits who are in doubt about it; indeed, they go so far as to declare that they are withheld by the Lord from evil and falsity which arise from their proprium and are kept by Him in good and truth. The actual withholding from their evil and falsity and the actual entrance of the Lord with good and truth is also perceptible to them; see 1614. But as to man's imagining that he does what is good from himself and thinks what is true from himself, this is an appearance due to his state being a state in which no perception is present and in which very great obscurity exists where influx is concerned. What he thinks therefore is based on that appearance, indeed on a delusion, from which he never allows himself to be removed so long as he believes nothing but the senses and reasons from these whether the thing is so. But although the appearance is such, man ought nevertheless to do what is good and to think what is true as from himself, for in no other way can he be reformed and regenerated. For the reason why, see 1937, 1947.

[2] The subject in this verse is the Lord's Human Essence that was to be united to the Divine Essence, also that all good and truth would accordingly come to man from the Divine Essence by way of His Human Essence. This is a Divine arcanum which few believe because they cannot grasp it mentally. Indeed they imagine that Divine Good can reach out to man independently of the Lord's Human united to the Divine. But the reason it cannot do so has already been shown briefly in 1676, 1990 - that through the evil desires in which he had immersed himself and through the falsities with which he had blinded himself man had moved himself so far away from the Supreme Divine that no influx of the Divine into the rational part of his mind was possible, except by way of the Human which the Lord united in Himself to the Divine. It was through His Human that communication was established, for in that way the Supreme Divine was able to come to man, as the Lord explicitly states in many places, that is to say, where He says that He is the way and that there is no other access to the Father except through Him. This then is what is being stated here - that He, that is to say, the Human united to the Divine, is the source of all good and of all truth.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.