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.

10036. 'And its skin' means falsity on lowest levels. This is clear from the meaning of 'skin' as truth on lowest levels, and in the contrary sense as falsity there. The origin of this meaning of 'skin' lies in correspondence; for those who in the Grand Man or heaven who correlate with the skin are people who are governed by the truths of faith and not so much by the good which goes with those truths, and who live on the borders of heaven, see 5552-5559. So it is that 'skin' means in the abstract sense truth on lowest levels, 3540, 8980. But here falsity on those levels is meant by it, because 'flesh' means the evil of [self] love, dealt with immediately above in 10035. When 'flesh' means the evil of [self] love its 'skin' means the falsity of faith arising from it.