Arcana Coelestia #30

30. Verses 14-17 And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens, to make a distinction between the day and the night; and they will be for signs, and for set times, and for days and years. And they will be for lights in the expanse of the heavens, to give light upon the earth; and it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to have dominion over the day, and the lesser light to have dominion over the night; and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.

No one can have an adequate understanding of what 'the great lights' are unless he knows what the underlying essence of faith is and how it develops in people who are being created anew. The very essence and life of faith is the Lord alone. In fact it is impossible for anyone who does not believe in the Lord to have life, as He Himself has said in John,

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God will rest upon him. John 3:36.

[2] With people who are being created anew faith develops as follows: First of all they have no life, for life does not exist in anything evil and false but in what is good and true. Then they start to receive life from the Lord by means of faith - first by faith existing in the memory, which is factual faith, then by faith existing in the understanding, which is conceptual faith, and after this by faith existing in the heart, which is loving or saving faith. Factual faith and conceptual faith are represented in verses 3-13 by the inanimate, but faith made alive by means of love is represented in verses 20-25 by the animate. Consequently this is the first point at which love and faith deriving from it, which are called 'lights', are dealt with. Love is 'the greater light which has dominion over the day', and faith deriving from love is 'the lesser light which has dominion over the night'. And because they ought to make one the verb in the phrase 'let there be lights 'is singular and not plural.

[3] Love and faith have their place in the internal man as warmth and light do in the external, bodily man, and for this reason love and faith are represented by warmth and light. Therefore it is said that 'the lights' were set in the expanse of the heavens, that is, in the internal man - the greater light in his will and the lesser in his understanding. Yet they make their appearances in the will and understanding only as sunlight does in the objects it strikes. To the Lord alone belongs the mercy which moves the will with love and the understanding with truth or faith.

30. Vers. 14. Et dixit Deus, Sit luminaria in expanso caelorum, ad distinguendum inter diem et inter noctem; et erunt in signa, et in stata tempora, et in dies, et annos. Et erunt in luminaria in expanso caelorum, ad lucem dandum super terra; et factum ita. Et fecit Deus duo luminaria magna, luminare magnum ad dominandum die, et luminare minus ad dominandum nocte, et stellas. Et posuit illa Deus in expanso caelorum, ad lucem dandum super terra. Quid ‘luminaria magna’, non satis intelligi potest nisi sciatur primum quae essentia fidei, tum quae ejus progressio apud eos qui e novo creantur. Ipsa essentia et vita fidei est solus Dominus; qui enim non credit in Dominum non habere potest vitam, ut Ipse dixit apud Johannem, Qui credit in Filium, habet vitam aeternam, qui vero non credit Filio, non videbit vitam, sed ira Dei manebit super eo, 3:36.

[2] Progressio fidei apud eos qui e novo creantur, est talis; primum nullius vitae sunt, nam in malo et falso non est vita, sed in bono et vero: dein accipiunt vitam a Domino per fidem, primum per fidem memoriae, quae est fides scientifica; tum per fidem intellectu, quae est fides intellectualis; dein per fidem corde, quae est fides amoris seu salvifica. Fides scientifica et intellectualis repraesentata est a versu 3 ad 13 per inanimata; fides autem vivificata per amorem repraesentatur a versu 20 ad 25 per animata; quare hic nunc primum agitur de amore et inde fide, ¹ quae vocantur ‘luminaria’; amor est ‘luminare magnum, quod dominatur die’; fides ex amore est ‘luminare minus, quod dominatur nocte; ’ quae quia unum facient, dicitur de iis in singulari, sit, non autem sint, luminaria.

[3] Amor et fides se habent in interno homine sicut calor et lux in externo corporeo, quare illa per haec repraesentantur; ideo luminaria posita dicuntur in expanso caelorum, seu in interno homine, magnum luminare in ejus voluntate et minus in ejus intellecta, sed apparent solum in voluntate et intellectu, sicut lux solis in objectis; est solius Domini Misericordia, quae amore voluntatem et veritate seu fide intellectum afficit.

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