664. And after three days and a half.- That this signifies when completed, thus the end of the old church, and the beginning of a new church, is evident from the signification of three days and a half, as denoting fulness or completion at the end of the old church, when there is the beginning of a new church, concerning which see above (n. 658). The reason why it is said, after three days and a half, is, that days, in the Word, signify states, here, the last state of the church. For all times, in the Word, as hours, days, weeks, months, years, and ages, signify states in the Word, as in this case, the last state of the church, when there is no longer any good of love or truth of faith remaining. Because days signify states, and since in the first chapter of Genesis the establishment of the Most Ancient Church is treated of which was accomplished successively from one state to another, therefore it is said there that there was evening and there was morning the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and sixth days, unto the seventh, when it was completed (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31), and the days there do not mean days, but the successive states of the regeneration of men at that time, and the consequent establishment of the church with them. So also elsewhere in the Word.

'Breath' is the life of the body corresponding to spiritual things, just like the motion of the heart is the life of the body corresponding to celestial things. The members of the Most Ancient Church had internal breathing, and so they had breathing that paralleled and was similar to the breathing of angels. The nature of that breathing varied according to each of the states of the internal self. This was altered in the process of time among their descendants down to the last generation of them, in whom everything angelic perished. At that point, they were no longer capable of breathing in company with the angelic heaven. This was the real reason for their annihilation, and why it is now said that 'they breathed their last' and that 'they died in whom there was the breath of the spirit of life in their nostrils' in Genesis 7:21, 22. After those times, internal breathing was ended, and with it, communication with heaven, and as a result, celestial perception. External breathing took its place. Since communication with heaven came to an end in this way, members of the Ancient or new Church were no longer capable of being celestial people, as the most ancient people had been, but only spiritual people.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 805, Genesis 7:21-22)