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 #3405
3405. 'And he reaped in that year a hundred measures' means an abundance. This is clear from the meaning of 'a year' as the entire state of that which is being discussed, dealt with in 487, 488, 493, 893; from the meaning of 'a hundred' as that which is much and complete, dealt with in 2636; and from the meaning of 'a measure' as the state of a thing in regard to truth, dealt with in 3104. Taken all together these expressions mean an abundance of truth. In the highest sense the subject here, as everywhere else, is the Lord. That is, even He, when in the human from the mother, was subject to appearances of truth; but He cast off that human, and the appearances too, and assumed the Infinite and eternal Divine itself.
[2] But in the internal or relative sense the subject is the appearances that belong to the higher degree, which, as has been stated, exist with angels; and it is the abundance of these appearances that is meant by the words 'he reaped in that year a hundred measures'. Thus the situation with the appearances of truth, or truths that come from the Divine, is that those belonging to the higher degree are immensely superior in their abundance and perfection to those that belong to the lower degree. For millions, indeed millions of millions, of things which beings on the higher degree perceive distinctly and separately appear as no more than a single whole with those on the lower degree; for the lower things are simply compound wholes made up of those things that are higher. This may be deduced from the two memories present in man, of which the interior memory, being on the higher degree, is immensely superior to the exterior which belongs to the lower degree, see 2473, 2674. This shows what wisdom angels enjoy in comparison with men. Indeed angels of the third heaven dwell in a fourth degree above man, and therefore, when shown to man, that wisdom can only be referred to as that which is above comprehension, indeed as that which defies description.
