131. [Genesis 2 continued]

18. And Jehovah God said, "It is not good for the human to be alone. Let me make him an aid that seems to be his." ⁵

19. And out of the soil Jehovah God formed every animal of the field and every bird in the heavens and brought it to the human to see what he would call it. And whatever the human called the living soul, that was its name.

20. And the human gave names to every beast and to the bird in the heavens and to every wild animal of the field; but for the human no aid was found that seemed to be his.

21. And Jehovah God made slumber fall on the human, and he went to sleep. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place.

22. And Jehovah God built a woman out of the rib that he took from the human and brought her to the human.

23. And the human said, "This time, bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. This is why she will be called ‘wife': because she was taken from man." ⁶

24. Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

25. And they were both naked, the human and his wife, and did not blush.

131. Summary

THESE verses deal with later generations of the earliest church, who strove for autonomy.

Genesis 2:11-14. The fourth, the Phrath or Euphrates, becomes the first; the third, in Assyria, becomes the second; the second, in Cush, becomes the third; and the first becomes the last. [LHC, JSR]

Isaiah 47:8-15. [LHC]

16. [LHC]

247 below. [JSR]

Genesis 2:18). The Latin phrase here translated "an aid that seems to be his," auxilium tanquam apud illum, has numerous possible meanings. This English rendering is based on Swedenborg's clarification in §140. [LHC]

Genesis 2:23). The point of the elliptical expression "This time, bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh" is that in this current act of creation, God has created bone from Adam's bones and flesh from his flesh, as opposed to what Adam was offered as companions before — that is, the animals, who were not from his bone and flesh. The derivation of the word "wife" described in the rest of the verse depends upon the Hebrew, in which the word for man (or husband) is אִישׁ ('îš), while that for wife (or woman) is אִישָּׁה ('îššā), so that the word for the latter seems to be "taken from" the former. Many English versions of the Bible express the wordplay by rendering the verse thus: "She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man" (Genesis 2:23). [RS, LHC]

140. A key to the reason why an aid that seemed to be his symbolizes a sense of autonomy lies in the nature of autonomy and in the story that follows. Since the people in the church being discussed here had good character, they were granted self-direction, but of a kind that only appeared to be theirs, which is why the verse says the aid seemed to be his.