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Arcana Coelestia #53

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53. Verse 27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him. 'Image' is mentioned twice here for the reason that faith, which resides in the understanding, is called 'His own image', while love, which resides in the will, is called 'the image of God'. The latter comes second in a spiritual man but first in a celestial man.

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

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Arcana Coelestia #5193

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5193. THE INTERNAL SENSE

Verses 1-4 And it happened at the end of two years of days, 1 that Pharaoh was dreaming, and behold, he was standing next to the river. And behold, out of the river seven cows were coming up, beautiful in appearance and fat-fleshed; and they fed in the sedge. And behold, seven other cows were coming up after them out of the river, bad in appearance and thin-fleshed, and stood by the [other] cows on the bank of the river. And the cows bad in appearance and thin-fleshed devoured the seven cows beautiful in appearance and fat. And Pharaoh awoke.

'And it happened at the end of two years of days' means after the state when the joining together took place. 'That Pharaoh was dreaming means provision made for the natural. 'And behold, he was standing next to the river' means from boundary to boundary. 'And behold, out of the river' means in the boundary. 'Seven cows were coming up' means the truths belonging to the natural. 'Beautiful in appearance means which are expressions of faith. 'And fat-fleshed' means which are embodiments of charity. 'And they fed in the sedge' means instruction. 'And behold, seven other cows were coming up after them out of the river' means falsities belonging to the natural which are also at the boundary. 'Bad in appearance' means which are not expressions of faith. 'And thin-fleshed' means which are not embodiments of charity. 'And stood by the [other] cows on the bank of the river' means at the boundaries where truths were present. 'And the cows bad in appearance and thin-fleshed devoured.....' means that falsities which were not expressions of faith and were not embodiments of charity would banish.....'The seven cows beautiful in appearance and fat' means the truths in the natural which are expressions of faith and embodiments of charity. 'And Pharaoh awoke' means a state of enlightenment.

Footnotes:

1. i.e. two full years

  
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From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #568

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568. 'Daughters' means the things that constituted the will of that man, and so means evil desires. This is clear from what has been stated and shown about sons and daughters at verse 4 of the previous chapter, where 'sons' meant truths and 'daughters' goods. 'Daughters' or goods constitute the will. But as is a person's character so is his understanding and his will, and so therefore his 'sons and daughters'. At the moment the subject is the corrupt human type who has no will but merely evil desire instead, which people imagine to be the will and actually call the will. For any attribute is determined by the nature of the subject to which it is attributed. As shown already, the human type to whom 'daughters' are attributed here is a corrupt type.

[2] The reason 'daughters' means things constituting the will, which are evil desires when the will for good is non-existent, while 'sons' means those constituting the understanding, which are delusions when the understanding of truth is non-existent, is that the female disposition and make-up is such that the will or evil desire reigns rather than understanding. Every one of their fibres runs in that direction; and it is their very nature. The male make-up however is such that the understanding or reason reigns; every one of their fibres too runs in that direction, and it is their very nature. Consequently the marriage of the two sexes is like that of the will and the understanding in the individual. And because nowadays the will for good does not exist, but only evil desire, when yet it is possible for something of the understanding or reason to exist, so many laws were for that reason laid down in the Jewish Church concerning the husband's rights and the wife's obedience.

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