841. That by “Noah” is signified, as before, the man of the Ancient Church; and by “every wild animal, and every beast that was with him in the ark” everything that belonged to him, is evident from what was previously stated concerning Noah, and concerning the signification of “wild animal” and “beast.” In the Word “wild animal” is taken in a twofold sense, namely, for those things in man which are alive, and for those which are dead. It stands for what is alive, because the word in the Hebrew tongue signifies a living thing; but as the most ancient people in their humiliation acknowledged themselves to be as wild animals, the word became also a type of what is dead in man. In the present passage, by “wild animal” is meant both what is alive and what is dead in one complex, in accordance with what is usually the case with man after temptation, in whom the living and the dead, or the things which are of the Lord, and those which are man’s own, appear so confounded that he scarcely knows what is true and good; but the Lord then reduces and disposes all things into order, as is evident from what follows. That a “wild animal” signifies what is alive in man, may be seen in the preceding chapter (Genesis 7:14), and in the present chapter (Genesis 8:17, 19); that it also signifies what is dead in man, is evident from what has been shown above respecting wild animals and beasts n. 45-46vvv3, 142-143, 246).

44. Verses 24-25. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living soul after its kind, the beast, and the moving thing, and the wild animal of the earth after its kind; and it was so. And God made the wild animal of the earth after its kind, and the beast after its kind, and everything that creepeth on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. Man, like the earth, can produce nothing of good unless the knowledges of faith are first sown in him, whereby he may know what is to be believed and done. It is the office of the understanding to hear the Word, and of the will to do it. To hear the Word and not to do it, is like saying that we believe when we do not live according to our belief; in which case we separate hearing and doing, and thus have a divided mind, and become of those whom the Lord calls “foolish” in the following passage, 26:

Whosoever heareth My words, and doeth them, I will liken unto a wise man who built his house upon a rock: but everyone that heareth My words, and doeth them not, I liken to a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand (Matthew 7:24, 26).The things that belong to the understanding are signified-as before shown-by the “creeping things which the waters bring forth” and also by the “fowl upon the earth” and “upon the faces of the expanse;” but those which are of the will are signified here by the “living soul which the earth produces” and by the “beast” and “creeping thing” and also by the “wild animal of that earth.”