The Bible

 

Genesis 1:20

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20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #1020

Study this Passage

  
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1020. That these things are meant becomes clear from the fact that everything put together as history from Genesis 1 down to Eber in Chapter 11 means something different from what appears in the letter, and from the consideration that the historical narratives there are purely made-up history customary among the most ancient people. When attesting the truth of some matter they would say that 'Jehovah said it'. Here however 'God' is used because the subject is the spiritual Church. And they did the same when anything true was being, or had been, put into effect.

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

Commentary

 

Fish

  

Fish represent knowledge. Fish laid upon the fire, as in John 21:9, represent the reformation of the natural man by the good of love, of which description were all the men of that time, in consequence of the complete vastation of the church. Fish signify sensual affections which are the ultimate affections of the natural man. Fish sometimes also represent people in common truth or conversely in external falsity. Broiled fish, as in Luke 24:42, signify the truth of good relating to the natural and sensual man, and honeycomb, the good of the same truth. To make as the fishes of the sea, signifies to make altogether sensual. Fish, as in Habakkuk 1:14-16, signify people in faith separate from charity.

(References: Apocalypse Revealed 405; John 9, 21; Luke 24)