Arcana Coelestia #131
131. Genesis 2:18-25
18. And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man 1 should be alone. I will make for him a help suitable for him.
19. And Jehovah God formed out of the ground every beast of the field, and every bird of the air, 2 and He brought it to the man to see what he would call it; and whatever the man called it, the living creature, 3 that was its name.
20. And the man gave names to every beast, and to the birds of the air, 2 and to every wild animal of the field; but for man there was not found a help suitable for him.
21. And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he fell asleep; and He took one of his ribs, and He closed up the flesh in its place.
22. And Jehovah God built the rib which He took from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.
23. And the man said, By this change, it is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh; for this she will be called Wife, because she was taken out of man (vir).
24. Therefore a man (vir) will leave his father and his mother and will cling to his wife, and they will be one flesh.
25. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.
CONTENTS
The subject is the descendants of the Most Ancient Church, who set their heart on the proprium.
Footnotes:
1. Unless otherwise indicated man in these verses 18-25 represents the Latin homo.
2. literally, bird of the heavens (or the skies)
3. literally, the living soul
Own
In many cases, the spiritual meaning of "own," both as a verb and as an adjective, is relatively literal. When people are described as the "Lord's own," however, it specifically means those people who know Him and have His Word. This has taken various forms since the dawn of humanity; in the prehistoric church known as the "Most Ancient Church" the Lord's truth -- the direct expression of His love -- flowed into people directly. In the Ancient Church the Lord's Word was recognized in nature and in the form of deeply representative stories, some of which were passed on to us in the early chapters of Genesis. Among the Children of Israel the Lord's Word was expressed through the Ten Commandments, the laws of Moses, the very history of the nation of Israel and the various psalms and prophecies. The early Christians had those stories along with the teaching and inspiration of Jesus himself. We now have the whole Bible, including the teachings of Jesus, and can understand the Bible's true meaning. Each of these churches, then, was at some point the Lord's own.
