Here are some excerpts from Swedenborg's "Arcana Coelestia" that help explain the inner meaning of this chapter:

AC 73. When from being dead a man has become spiritual, then from spiritual he becomes celestial, as is now treated of (verse 1).

AC 74. The celestial man is the seventh day, on which the Lord rests (verses 2, 3).

AC 75. His knowledge and his rationality (scientificum et rationale ejus) are described by the shrub and the herb out of the ground watered by the mist (verses 5, 6).

AC 76. His life is described by the breathing into him of the breath of lives (verse 7).

AC 77. Afterwards his intelligence is described by the garden in Eden, in the east; in which the trees pleasant to the sight are perceptions of truth, and the trees good for food are perceptions of good. Love is meant by the tree of lives, faith by the tree of knowledge (scientiae) (verses 8, 9).

AC 78. Wisdom is meant by the river in the garden. From thence were four rivers, the first of which is good and truth; the second is the knowledge (cognitio) of all things of good and truth, or of love and faith. These are of the internal man. The third is reason, and the fourth is memory-knowledge (scientia), which are of the external man. All are from wisdom, and this is from love and faith in the Lord (verses 10-14).

AC 79. The celestial man is such a garden. But as the garden is the Lord‘s, it is permitted this man to enjoy all these things, and yet not to possess them as his own (verse 15).

AC 80. He is also permitted to acquire a knowledge of what is good and true by means of every perception from the Lord, but he must not do so from himself and the world, nor search into the mysteries of faith by means of the things of sense and of memory-knowledge (sensualia et scientifica); which would cause the death of his celestial nature (verses 16, 17).

AC 131. The posterity of the Most Ancient Church, which inclined to their Own, is here treated of.

AC 132. Since man is such as not to be content to be led by the Lord, but desires to be led also by himself and the world, or by his Own, therefore the Own which was granted him is here treated of (verse 18).

AC 133. And first it is given him to know the affections of good and the knowledges of truth with which he is endowed by the Lord; but still he inclines to his Own (verses 19, 20).

AC 134. Wherefore he is let into a state of his Own, and an Own is given him, which is described by the rib built into a woman (verses 21 to 23).

AC 135. Celestial and spiritual life are adjoined to the man’s Own, so that they appear as a one (verse 24).

AC 136. And innocence from the Lord is insinuated into this Own, so that it still might not be unacceptable (verse 25).

73. Genesis 2:1-17

1. And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2. And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made, and rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.

3. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, for on that day He rested from all His work which God had created when making it.

4. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when He created them, on the day in which Jehovah God made the earth and the heavens.

5. And no shrub of the field was yet on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth; and there was no man to till the ground.

6. And He caused a mist to go up from the earth, and it watered all the face ¹ of the ground.

7. And Jehovah God formed the man, dust from the ground; and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; ² and man became a living soul.

8. And Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, from the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed.

9. And Jehovah God caused to spring up out of the ground every tree desirable to the sight and good for food; and the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10. And a river was going out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four heads.

11. The of the first is the Pishon; this encompasses the whole land of Havillah, where there is gold.

12. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium is there and the shoham stone.

13. And the name of the second river is the Gihon, that which encompasses the whole land of Cush.

14. And the name of the third river is the Hiddekel. This goes eastwards towards Asshur. And the fourth river is the Phrath.

15. And Jehovah God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden, to till it and to care for it.

16. And Jehovah God commanded the man and said, From every tree in the garden you may indeed eat.

17. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it, for on the day that you eat of it you will surely die.

CONTENTS

Verse 1 deals next with the man who from being dead has already progressed to being spiritual, and from being spiritual now progresses to being celestial.

Poznámky pod čarou: