755. The symbolism of the six hundredth year, second month, and seventeenth day as the next stage of their trials follows from what has been said so far. From verse 6 up to this point, verse 11, the text has dealt with the first stage of trial, which was a challenge to the concerns of the intellect, but the present passage deals with the next stage, a challenge to the concerns of the will. This is the reason for the restatement of Noah's age. It is expressed the first time as the fact that he was a son of six hundred years but here as the fact that the Flood took place in the six hundredth year of his life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day.

No one can possibly guess that the years of Noah's life, specified down to the year, month, and day, mean a condition of struggle in respect to the promptings of the will, but this was the way the earliest people spoke and wrote, as noted [§66]. They took particular delight in being able to specify periods and names in order to construct an authentic-sounding history. This is what their wisdom consisted in.

[2] I have already shown, at verse 6 above [§737], that six hundred years simply symbolize the first stage of trial. The six hundred years here have a similar meaning, but the months and days are added in order to symbolize the second stage. In fact, two months (or in the second month) is added, symbolizing the actual combat, as can be seen from the symbolism of the number two, given above at verse 2 of this chapter. It was shown to have the same symbolism as six: hard work, combat, and dispersing something. (See the demonstration there.) ¹

The number seventeen, however, symbolizes both the beginning and the end of trial, because it is composed of seven and ten. When seven symbolizes the beginning of trial, it implies the phrase in seven days, or a seven-day week, which was shown above at verse 4 of this chapter [§728] to symbolize the beginning of trial. But when seven symbolizes the end of trial, as it does below in Genesis 8:4, it is a holy number. Ten, symbolizing the things that remain, is added to the seven because without a remnant we cannot be reborn.

[3] The symbolism of seventeen as the beginning of trial can be seen in Jeremiah, where he was commanded to buy a field in Anathoth from Hanamel, his father's brother. Jeremiah weighed out silver for him, seventeen shekels of silver (Jeremiah 32:9). This number also symbolized the people's captivity in Babylon, which represented the trials suffered by the faithful and the devastation suffered by the faithless. In fact it represented the start of trial and at the same time the end of trial, or liberation. All this can be seen from later verses in the same chapter of Jeremiah: verse 36 concerns their captivity, and the next, verse 37, their liberation. A number like this would never have shown up in Jeremiah had it not, like all the other details, entailed secrets from heaven.

[4] The symbolism of seventeen as the start of trial can also be seen from Joseph's age — he was a "son of seventeen years" — when he was sent to his brothers and sold into Egypt (Genesis 37:2). The fact that he was sold into Egypt has a similar representation, as will be demonstrated in the appropriate place [§§4670, 4788, 5886], with the Lord's divine mercy.

That passage in Genesis contains historical details with a representative meaning, and events happened according to the description there. The events of the current passage, though, are made-up history with a symbolic meaning and did not happen according to the literal description here. Yet the components of Joseph's story down to the individual words still involve heavenly secrets as much as those of Noah's story do.

This fact necessarily seems strange, because anywhere that an item of true or made-up history occurs, the mind lingers over the literal meaning, unable to extricate itself, and it therefore believes no symbolism or representation exists beyond the letter.

[5] But any intelligent person can see that the Word has some kind of inner meaning in which its life resides. (Its life is not in the letter, which apart from the inner meaning is dead.) Without a deeper meaning, how does a historical fact [in the Word] differ from one reported by any secular author? What use would it be to know in what year, month, and day of Noah's life the Flood took place, if this did not involve some heavenly mystery? Can anyone fail to see that all the springs of the great abyss burst and heaven's floodgates opened is a prophetic turn of speech? Other similar arguments could be offered.

Footnotes:

66. The Word has four major modes of writing:

1. The mode of [the people in] the earliest church. Their method of expressing themselves involved thought of the spiritual and heavenly things represented by the earthly, mundane objects they mentioned. Not only did they express themselves in words representing higher things, they also spun those words into a kind of narrative thread to lend them greater life. This practice gave the earliest people the fullest pleasure possible.

This early manner of writing is meant in Hannah's prophecy: "Speak deeply, deeply; let what is ancient come out of your mouth" (1 Samuel 2:3). ¹ David calls those representative signs "enigmas from ancient times" (Psalms 78:2, 3, 4). Moses received the present accounts of creation and the Garden of Eden, extending up to the time of Abram, from the descendants of the earliest church.

[2] 2. The narrative mode. This mode is used in the books of Moses ² from Abram's story on, and in Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. The historical events in these books are exactly what they appear to be in the literal sense, but as a whole and in detail they still contain an entirely different meaning on the inner plane. What follows will, with the Lord's divine mercy, explain that meaning in order. ³

3. The prophetic mode. The inspiration for this was the mode used by the earliest church, a manner of writing [the authors] revered. But the prophetic mode lacks the cohesiveness and semi-historical quality of the earliest church's mode. It is choppy, and almost completely unintelligible except on the inner level, which holds profound secrets forming a well-connected chain of ideas. They deal with our outer and inner beings, the many stages of the church, heaven itself, and — at the very core — the Lord.

4. David's psalms. This mode is midway between the prophetic mode and people's usual way of speaking. The inner meaning speaks of the Lord under the character of David when he was king.

Footnotes: