24. Verse 6. And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it distinguish between the waters in the waters. After the spirit of God, or the Lord’s mercy, has brought forth into day the knowledges of the true and of the good, and has given the first light, that the Lord is, that He is good itself, and truth itself, and that there is no good and truth but from Him, He then makes a distinction between the internal man and the external, consequently between the knowledges [cognitiones] that are in the internal man, and the memory-knowledges [scientifica] that belong to the external man. ¹ The internal man is called an “expanse;” the knowledges [cognitiones] which are in the internal man are called “the waters above the expanse;” and the memory-knowledges of the external man are called “the waters beneath the expanse.”

[2] Man, before he is being regenerated, does not even know that any internal man exists, much less is he acquainted with its nature and quality. He supposes the internal and the external man to be not distinct from each other. For, being immersed in bodily and worldly things, he has also immersed in them the things that belong to his internal man, and has made of things that are distinct a confused and obscure unit. Therefore it is first said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters” and then, “Let it distinguish between the waters in the waters;” but not, Let it distinguish between the waters which are “under” the expanse and the waters which are “above” the expanse, as is afterwards said in the next verses:

And God made the expanse, and made a distinction between the waters which were under the expanse, and the waters which were above the expanse, and it was so. And God called the expanse heaven (Genesis 1:7-8).

[3] The next thing therefore that man observes in the course of regeneration is that he begins to know that there is an internal man, or that the things which are in the internal man are goods and truths, which are of the Lord alone. Now as the external man, when being regenerated, is of such a nature that he still supposes the goods that he does to be done of himself, and the truths that he speaks to be spoken of himself, and whereas, being such, he is led by them of the Lord, as by things of his own, to do what is good and to speak what is true, therefore mention is first made of a distinction of the waters under the expanse, and afterwards of those above the expanse. It is also an arcanum of heaven, that man, by things of his own, as well by the fallacies of the senses as by cupidities, is led and bent by the Lord to things that are true and good, and thus that every movement and moment of regeneration, both in general and in particular, proceeds from evening to morning, thus from the external man to the internal, or from “earth” to “heaven.” Therefore the expanse, or internal man, is now called “heaven.”

Notes de bas de page:

5212. And behold seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk. That this signifies memory-knowledges of the natural joined together, is evident from the signification of “ears,” or spikes, of corn, as being memory-knowledges belonging to the natural (of which in what follows); and from the signification of “upon one stalk,” as being joined together; for in respect to their origin things on one stalk are joined together. The reason why “ears” or spikes of corn signify memory-knowledges, is that “corn” signifies the good of the natural (see n. 3580), because memory-knowledges are the containants of the good of the natural, as the ears are of the corn; for in general all truths are vessels of good, and so also are memory-knowledges, for these are lowest truths.

Lowest truths, or truths of the exterior natural, are called memory-knowledges, because they are in man’s natural or external memory, and because they partake for the most part of the light of the world, and hence can be presented and represented to others by forms of words, or by ideas formed into words by means of such things as are of the world and its light. The things in the inner memory, however, insofar as they partake of the light of heaven, are not called memory-knowledges, but truths; nor can they be understood except by means of this light, or expressed except by forms of words, or ideas formed into words, by means of such things as are of heaven and its light. The memory-knowledges here signified by “ears,” or spikes, are memory-knowledges of the church, in regard to which see above (n. 4749, 4844, 4964, 4965).

[2] The reason why there were two dreams, one of the seven kine and the other of the seven ears of corn, is that in the internal sense both naturals, the interior and the exterior, are treated of, and in what follows, the rebirth of both. By the “seven kine” are signified the things of the interior natural called truths of the natural (see n. 5198); and by the “seven ears of corn,” the truths of the exterior natural called memory-knowledges.

[3] Interior and exterior memory-knowledges are signified by “ears of the river Euphrates even to the river of Egypt,” in Isaiah:

It shall be in that day that Jehovah will shake off from the ear of the river even unto the river of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one to another, ye sons of Israel. And it shall be in that day that a great trumpet shall be sounded, and they shall come that are perishing in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt; and they shall bow themselves to Jehovah in the mountain of holiness at Jerusalem (Isaiah 27:12-13);

“the perishing in the land of Assyria” denote interior truths, and the “outcasts in the land of Egypt,” exterior truths or memory-knowledges.

[4] So also in Mark the comparison with the blade, the ear, and the corn, involves the rebirth of man by means of memory-knowledges, truths of faith, and goods of charity:

Jesus said, So is the kingdom of God, as when a man casteth seed upon the earth; then sleepeth and riseth night and day, but the seed germinates and grows while he knoweth not. For the earth beareth fruit of itself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come (Mark 4:26-29).

The “kingdom of God,” which is compared to the blade, the ear, and the corn, is heaven in man through regeneration; for one who has been regenerated has the kingdom of God within him, and becomes in image the kingdom of God or heaven. The “blade” is the first memory-knowledge; the “ear” is the memory-knowledge of truth thence derived; the “corn” is the derivative good. Moreover, the laws enacted in regard to gleanings (Leviticus 19:9; 23:22), and in regard to the liberty of plucking the ears from the standing corn of the neighbor (Deuteronomy 23:25), and also in regard to eating no bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the offering of God was brought (Leviticus 23:14), represented such things as are signified by “ears.”