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Arcana Coelestia #2693

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2693. 'And said to her, What is the matter, Hagar?' means perception regarding one's state. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' in historical parts of the Word as perceiving, dealt with already, and from the meaning of 'What is the matter, Hagar?' as its state at the time. Although He questions her and says, 'What is the matter, Hagar?' the meaning here is that the Lord knew its state. In the sense of the letter this is a question asked by the Lord, but in the internal sense the infinite perception of all things is meant. One reads in various places in the Word of people being questioned about their state, but the reason why they are questioned is this: Man has no other belief than that no one knows his thoughts, let alone the state of his affection. An added reason is that people may be helped by being able to express their feelings (sensa animi), which usually does them good, see 1701, 1931.

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

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Arcana Coelestia #1702

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1702. That 'Abram the Hebrew' is the Interior Man to whom the Internal or Divine Man was joined becomes clear from the meaning of Abram the Hebrew, that is, from Abram's descriptive name used here 'the Hebrew'. In what has gone before and in what follows where Abram is referred to he is not called 'the Hebrew'. Only here is he called such, and therefore something distinct with regard to the Lord is represented and meant by 'Abram the Hebrew'. What is represented and meant becomes clear from the internal sense, namely this, that the Interior Man was joined to the Internal or Divine Man, as becomes clear also from the train of thought in the internal sense. The name 'the Hebrews' occurs in the Word when something to do with service is meant, whatever it may be, as becomes clear from what follows. The Interior Man is such that it serves the Internal or Divine Man, and therefore the Interior Man is here called 'Abram the Hebrew'.

[2] What the interior man is scarcely anyone knows, and therefore let this be described briefly. The interior man is situated between the internal man and the external man, it being by means of the interior man that the internal man communicates with the external. Without the interior man between them no communication from one to the other is ever possible. The celestial is distinct and separate from the natural, and still more from the bodily; and unless there is something in between through which communication is established the celestial cannot possibly operate into the natural, still less into the bodily. The interior man is called the rational man, and because that man is situated between the two, it communicates in one direction with the internal man where there is good itself and truth itself, and in the other with the external man where there is evil and falsity. By means of this communication with the internal man a person is able to think about celestial and spiritual things, or look upwards, which animals cannot do; and by means of his communication with the external man a person is able to think about worldly and bodily things, or look downwards almost in the way animals do which likewise possess ideas of earthly things. In short, the interior man, or the man between internal man and external, is the rational man itself, which is spiritual or celestial when looking upwards but merely animal when looking downwards.

[3] It is well known that a person can be aware of the fact that he is speaking in one way while thinking in another, and doing one thing while willing another, and that presence and deception are present; also that reason or rationality exists, and that this is something interior since it is able to dissent; also that with one who is to be regenerated something interior exists which battles with that which is exterior. This interior something which thinks differently and wills differently from that which is exterior, and which battles with it, is the interior man. Within this interior man conscience resides in the case of the spiritual man and perception in the case of the celestial man. This Interior Man, which was joined in the Lord's case to the Divine Internal Man, is that which is here called 'Abram the Hebrew'.

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