The Bible

 

Genesis 7

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1 And Jehovah said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee seven and seven, the male and his female; and of the beasts that are not clean two, the male and his female:

3 of the birds also of the heavens, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the ground.

5 And Noah did according unto all that Jehovah commanded him.

6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.

8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creepeth upon the ground,

9 there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, male and female, as God commanded Noah.

10 And it came to pass after the seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

14 they, and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.

15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh wherein is the breath of life.

16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him: and Jehovah shut him in.

17 And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth.

18 And the waters prevailed, and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.

19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered.

20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both birds, and cattle, and beasts, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:

22 all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land, died.

23 And every living thing was destroyed that was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only was left, and they that were with him in the ark.

24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #870

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870. That by a “dove” are signified the truths and goods of faith with him who is to be regenerated, is evident from the signification of a “dove” in the Word, especially the dove which came upon Jesus when He was baptized, of which we read in Matthew:

Jesus when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and coming upon Him (Matthew 3:16; also John 1:32; Luke 3:21-22; Mark 1:10-11).

Here the “dove” signified nothing else than the holy of faith; and the “baptism” itself, regeneration; so that there was signified, in the new church which was to arise, the truth and good of faith which is received by regeneration from the Lord. Similar things were represented and involved by the young pigeons or turtledoves that were offered for sacrifice and burnt offering in the Jewish Church, of which we read in Leviticus (Leviticus 1:14-17, Leviticus 5:7-10, Leviticus 12:6, 8; 14:21-22; 15:14, 29-30; Numbers 6:10-11; Luke 2:22-24), as is evident from the several passages. That they had such a signification everyone may comprehend from the sole consideration that they must needs represent something; for otherwise they would have no meaning and would be in no respect Divine, for what is external of the church is an inanimate affair, but lives from what is internal, and this from the Lord.

[2] That a “dove” in general signifies the intellectual things of faith, is also evident in the Prophets, as in Hosea:

Ephraim will be like a silly dove, without heart; they called Egypt, they went unto Assyria (Hosea 7:11).

And again, concerning Ephraim:

They shall be afraid, as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria (Hosea 11:11).

Here “Ephraim” denotes one who is intelligent, “Egypt” one who has knowledge, “Assyria” one who is rational, a “dove” what is of the intellectual things of faith; and here also the subject is the regeneration of the spiritual church. Again in David:

O Jehovah, deliver not the soul of Thy turtledove unto the wild beast (Psalms 74:19); where “wild beast” denotes those who are of no charity; the “soul of the “turtle dove” the life of faith. See also what has been said and shown before about birds 1 , that they signify intellectual things: gentle, beautiful, clean, and useful birds, intellectual truths and goods; but fierce, ugly, unclean, and useless birds, the opposite, or falsities, such as the raven, which is here opposed to the dove.

Footnotes:

1. Editor’s note by NCBSP: The descriptions occur in passages 40 and 776.

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