Arcana Coelestia #870
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:
Genesis 8
1
God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.
2
The deep's fountains and the sky's windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained.
3
The waters receded from the earth continually. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters decreased.
4
The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat's mountains.
5
The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6
It happened at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made,
7
and he sent forth a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth.
8
He sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground,
9
but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him into the ship; for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship.
10
He stayed yet another seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ship.
11
The dove came back to him at evening, and, behold, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth.
12
He stayed yet another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she didn't return to him any more.
13
It happened in the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dried.
14
In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
16
"Go out of the ship, you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you.
17
Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth."
18
Noah went forth, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives with him.
19
Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship.
20
Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21
Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike everything living, as I have done.
22
While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."
