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.

'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)