671. 'Pairs of all you shall cause to enter the ark to keep them alive means the regeneration of these. This becomes clear from what has been stated in the previous verse, to the effect that truths cannot be regenerated except by means of goods and delights. Nor therefore can things of faith be regenerated except through those of charity. Hence the statement here about pairs of all having to enter, clearly meaning that both truths, which belong to the understanding, and goods, which belong to the will, were to do so. With someone who has not yet been regenerated an understanding of truth and a will for good do not exist but merely appear to do so, and are referred to as such in everyday speech. It is possible for rational truths and for facts to exist with that person, but these have no life. It is also possible for goods which merely look like those of the will, such as those present with gentiles or even with animals, to exist there. But these have no life either; they are merely semblances. With man such things are in no sense alive until he has been regenerated and they have in this way been made alive by the Lord. In the next life what has life and what does not is perceived very distinctly. Truth that has no life is perceived instantly as something material, all tangled and closed up, while good that has no life is perceived as something wooden, bony, and stone-like. But truth or good made alive by the Lord is open, living, and full of what is spiritual and celestial - open even from the Lord Himself. This applies to every idea and action, even to the smallest of either of them. This is why the statement is here made about pairs having to enter the ark to keep them alive.

4964. 'Was made to go down to Egypt' means to factual knowledge which the Church possessed. This is clear from the meaning of 'Egypt' as knowledge, or factual knowledge in general, dealt with in 1164, 1165, 1186, 1462. But no explanation of the essential nature of that factual knowledge properly meant by 'Egypt' has been provided as yet. In the Ancient Church there was doctrinal knowledge and there was factual knowledge. Doctrinal knowledge had regard to love to God and charity towards the neighbour, whereas factual knowledge had to do with the correspondences of the natural world with the spiritual world, and with the representations of spiritual and heavenly realities within natural and earthly ones. Such was the factual knowledge of those in the Ancient Church.

[2] Egypt was one of those parts of the world and one of those kingdoms where the Ancient Church also existed, 1138, 1385; but since in that land mainly factual knowledge was handed down from one generation to another, 'Egypt' means factual knowledge in general. This also explains why frequent reference is made to Egypt in the prophetical part of the Word, where that knowledge is meant specifically by 'Egypt'. What is more, the actual magic practised by the Egyptians had its origin in the same knowledge; for they were acquainted with the correspondences of the natural world with the spiritual, and at a later time, after the Church among them had come to an end, they misused these in magical practices. Now because such factual knowledge existed among them - that is to say, knowledge which taught correspondences, and also representatives and meaningful signs - and because this factual knowledge was the servant of the doctrinal teachings of the Church, especially in their understanding of things stated in their Word (for the Word of the Ancient Church was both prophetical and historical, like the Word that exists today, though this is a different Word, see 2686) 'he was made to go down to Egypt' consequently means made to go down to the factual knowledge which the Church possessed.

[3] Because the Lord is represented by 'Joseph' and the words 'Joseph was made to go down to Egypt' are used here, the meaning is that when the Lord was to glorify His Internal Man, that is, make it Divine, He first of all assimilated the factual knowledge possessed by the Church. Then, starting from and using that knowledge He advanced towards things increasingly interior and at length even to those that were Divine. For it pleased Him to glorify or make Himself Divine in conformity with the same kind of order as that by which He regenerates the human being or makes him spiritual, 3138, 3212, 3296, 3490, 4402. That is to say, there is a gradual advance from external ideas, which are known facts and the truths of faith, towards internal ones, which are ideas of charity towards the neighbour and of love to Him. From this one may see what is meant by the following words in Hosea,

When Israel was a boy I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. Hosea 11:1.

These words refer to the Lord, see Matthew 2:15.