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Arcana Coelestia #4736

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4736. Cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness. That this signifies that they should conceal it meanwhile among their falsities, that is, that they should regard it as false, but still retain it because it was of importance to the church, is evident from the signification of a “pit,” as being falsities (see n. 4728); and from the signification of a “wilderness,” as being where there is no truth. For the word “wilderness” has a wide signification, it means where the land is uninhabited, and thus not cultivated; and when predicated of the church, it denotes where there is no good, and consequently no truth (n. 2708, 3900). Thus by a “pit in the wilderness” are here meant falsities in which there is no truth, because no good. It is said in which there is no truth because no good; for when anyone believes that faith saves without works, truth may indeed exist, but still it is not truth in him, because it does not look to good, nor is it from good. This truth is not alive, because it has in it a principle of falsity, consequently with anyone who has such truth, the truth is but falsity from the principle which rules in it. The principle is like the soul, from which the rest have their life. On the other hand there are falsities which are accepted as truths, when there is good in them, especially if it is the good of innocence, as with the Gentiles and also with many within the church.

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

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Arcana Coelestia #265

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265. 'Husband' (vir) means the rational. This is clear from verse 6 of this chapter which says that the woman gave to her husband (vir) with her and he ate, meaning that he conceded. It is also clear from what was shown concerning the word 'man' (vir) in 158, where that word was used to mean a person who is wise and intelligent. Here however, because wisdom and intelligence had perished as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, it means the rational, for nothing else was left. Indeed the rational is an imitation or seeming likeness of intelligence.

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