156. Genesis 2:23. 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." 1
Bone from one's bones and flesh from one's flesh symbolizes the sense of autonomy of our outer being; bone symbolizes that autonomy without much life, and flesh symbolizes that autonomy with life. The man, though, symbolizes our inner being, and because the inner being is intimately coupled with the outer being, as the next verse says, this desire to rule ourselves is here called a wife — the term used in the next verse — instead of a woman as before. 2 This time means that it has now been accomplished, because our state has changed. 3
Footnotes:
1. For this derivation of the word "wife" from "man," see note 6 in §130. [RS]
2. Although in Swedenborg's Latin the word "woman" (Latin mulier) is used in Genesis 2:22 and the word "wife" (Latin uxor) is used in verses 23-25, the same Hebrew word אִישָּׁה ('îššā) underlies them both. In making this change here from "woman" to "wife" Swedenborg follows a long-standing tradition in Latin translations of the Bible. [JSR]
3. Presumably what was accomplished was the acquisition of autonomy. [LHC]
