Arcana Coelestia #893
893. Verse 13 And it happened in the six hundred and first year, at the beginning, on the first of the month, that the waters dried up from over the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and saw out, and behold, the face 1 of the ground was dry.
'It happened in the six hundred and first year' means a finishing point. 'At the beginning, on the first of the month' means a starting point. 'The waters dried up from over the earth' means that falsities were not at that time apparent. 'And Noah removed the covering of the ark, and saw out' means the light, once falsities had been removed, shed by the truths of faith, which he acknowledged and in which he had faith. 'And behold, the face 1 of the ground was dry' means regeneration.
Footnotes:
1. literally, the faces
[893a] 1
That 'it happened in the six hundred and first year means a finishing point is clear from the meaning of the number six hundred, dealt with at Chapter 7:6, in 737, as a beginning, and in particular in that verse as the beginning of temptation. The end of it is specified by the same number, with a whole year having now passed by. It took place therefore at the end of a year, and this also is why the words are added 'at the beginning, on the first of the month', meaning a starting point. In the Word any complete period is specified either by a day, or a week, or a month, or a year, and even by a hundred or a thousand years - for example, 'the days' mentioned in Genesis 1, which meant stages in the regeneration of the member of the Most Ancient Church. For in the internal sense day and year mean nothing else than a period of time; and meaning a period of time they also mean a state. Consequently a year stands in the Word for a period of time and for a state, as in Isaiah,
To proclaim the year of Jehovah's good pleasure, and the day of vengeance for our God; to comfort all who mourn. Isaiah 61:2.
This refers to the Lord's Coming. In the same prophet,
The day of vengeance was in My heart, and the year of My redeemed had come. Isaiah 63:4.
Here too 'day' and 'year' stand for a period of time and for a state. In Habakkuk,
Your work, O Jehovah, in the midst of the years make it live, in the midst of the years do You make it known. Habakkuk 3:2.
Here 'years' stands for a period of time and for a state. In David,
'You are God Himself, and Your years have no end. Psalms 102:27.
This statement, in which 'years' stands for periods of time, means that time does not exist with God. The same applies in the present verse where 'the year' of the flood in no way means any one particular year but a period of time that is not determined by a specific number of years. At the same time it means a state. See what has been said already about 'years' in 482, 487, 488, 493.
1. This paragraph is not numbered in the Latin.
Arcana Coelestia #2256
2256. That 'as to make the righteous die with the wicked, so that the righteous will be as the wicked' means that good cannot die, because evil can be separated from it, is clear from the meaning of 'the righteous' as good and of 'the wicked' as evil, dealt with above in 2250. From this 'to make the righteous die with the wicked' means making good perish with evil; but because this ought never to be done, and also because the very thought of it evokes horror, it is removed in the internal sense, and the following is at the same time presented - that good cannot die, because evil can be separated from it.
[2] The implications of this particular matter are known to few, if any. It has to be recognized that all the good whatever that a person has thought and done from earliest childhood through to the very end of his life remains; and the same applies to all the evil, so much so that not even the least trace of it completely perishes. All that good and evil is written in his book of life, that is, in each of his memories, 1 and in his true self, that is, in his character and disposition. From that good and evil he has formed a life for himself and, so to speak, a soul, the essential nature of which remains unchanged after death. But goods are never so mixed up with evils, nor evils with goods, that they cannot be separated; for if they were so mixed a person would perish for ever. The Lord sees to it that they are not. If he has led a life abiding in the goods of love and charity, then when a person enters the next life the Lord separates the evils, and by means of the goods present with him raises him into heaven. But if he has led a life immersed in evils, that is to say, in things contrary to love and charity, the Lord separates the goods from him, and his evils carry him into hell. Such is the experience of everyone after death. But it is a separation and in no way a complete removal.
[3] What is more, because the will of man, which constitutes the one part of his life, has been utterly destroyed, the Lord separates that destroyed part from the other part, which is that of his understanding, and in this other part He implants - in the case of those who are being regenerated - the good of charity and through this a new will. These are they who have conscience. In the same manner also the Lord in general separates evil from good. Such are the arcana that are meant in the internal sense by the statement that good cannot die, because evil can be separated from it.
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