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Genesis 1:15

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15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #476

Studere hoc loco

  
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476. That 'male and female' means the marriage of faith and love has been stated and shown already. That is to say, 'male' or man (vir) means the understanding and what belongs to the understanding, and so what belongs to faith, while 'female' means the will, or what belongs to the will, and so what belongs to love. This also is why she was called Eve, from a word meaning life, which belongs to love alone. 'Female' therefore also means the Church, as also shown already, and 'male' the man (vir) of the Church. At present the subject is the state of the Church at the time it was spiritual and shortly to become celestial, which is why the word 'male' comes first, as it does also in 1:26-27. Furthermore the expression 'to create' has regard to the spiritual man. As soon however as that marriage has taken place, that is, the Church has become celestial, it is no longer called 'male and female' but 'Man' (Homo) who by virtue of the marriage means both. Consequently 'and He called their name Man', which means the Church, follows next.

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

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #6013

Studere hoc loco

  
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6013. 'And their young children' means accompanied by aspects of innocence. This is clear from the meaning of 'young children' as innocence, dealt with in 3183, 5608. Natural truth is said to be accompanied by aspects of innocence, and also those of charity, for the reason that if it lacks innocence and charity spiritual truths cannot cause it to move ahead. For to be genuine, truth must derive its essence and life from charity, and charity must derive its essence and life from innocence. Indeed these inner virtues which give truth its life follow one another in this order: What is inmost is innocence; below this comes charity; and what is lowest is a charitable deed motivated by or done in conformity with truth. The reason why they follow one another in this way is that they follow one another in heaven in that order. The inmost or third heaven is the heaven of innocence; the middle or second heaven is the heaven of charity that has innocence from the inmost heaven within it; and the lowest or first heaven is the heaven of truth that has charity from the second heaven within it, and innocence from the third within that charity.

[2] These virtues ought to exist in the same order in man, for interiorly the human being is so created that he conforms to an image of the three heavens. This also is why a person who has been regenerated is an individual heaven or the smallest form heaven can take. But exteriorly, especially so far as his body is concerned, he is so created that he conforms to an image of the world, which was why the ancients called him the microcosm. The ear has been made to conform to the whole nature of air and sound; the eye to conform to the whole nature of the ether and light; the tongue to every perception of particles dissolved and suspended in fluids; the nostrils to the perception of particles suspended in the atmosphere; touch to the perception of cold and heat, and also of weights; and so on. Just as a person's external senses conform to an entire image of the natural world, so his internal senses, which are those of his understanding and will, have been so created that they conform to an entire image of heaven. They have been created like this so that the human being as an individual, like heaven as a general whole, may be a recipient of Divine Good from the Lord.

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