46. Many examples from the Word can clarify the fact that beasts or animals symbolize the feelings we have — negative feelings if we are evil, positive feelings if we are good. Take these verses in Ezekiel:
Here, now, I am yours, [mountains of Israel,] and I will turn to face you so that you may be tilled and sown; and I will multiply human and animal upon you, and they will multiply and reproduce; and I will cause you to live as in your ancient times. (Ezekiel 36:9-10, 11)
This speaks of regeneration. In Joel:
Do not be afraid, animals of my field; because the living-places of the desert have become grassy. (Joel 2:22)
In David:
I was dull-witted; I was like the animals, in God's sight. (Psalms 73:22)
In Jeremiah:
Look! The days are coming when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of human and the seed of animal; and I will watch over them to build and to plant. (Jeremiah 31:27-28)
This speaks of regeneration.
[2] Wild animals have the same symbolism. In Hosea, for example:
I will strike a pact with them on that day — with the wild animal of the field, and with the bird in the heavens and the creeping animal of the earth. (Hosea 2:18)
In Job:
Of the wild animal of the earth you are not to be afraid, as you will have a compact with the stones of the field, and the wild animal of the field will be peaceful toward you. (Job 5:22-23)
In Ezekiel:
I will strike a pact of peace with you and bring an end on the earth to the evil wild animal, so that people may live securely in the wilderness. (Ezekiel 34:25)
In Isaiah:
The wild animal of the field will honor me because I have put water in the desert. (Isaiah 43:20)
In Ezekiel:
In its branches nested every bird of the heavens, and under its branches bred every wild animal of the field, and in its shade lived all the great nations. (Ezekiel 31:6)
This describes Assyrians, who symbolize a person with a spiritual focus and who are being compared to the Garden of Eden. In David:
Give glory to Jehovah, all you angels of his; give glory from the earth, you sea creatures, fruit tree, wild animal, and every beast, creeping animal, and bird on the wing. (Psalms 148:2-3, 4, 7, 9-10)
This lists exactly the same things [as the present chapter]: sea creatures, fruit tree, wild animal, beast, creeping animal, and bird. Unless they symbolized living things in us, they could never be said to give glory to Jehovah.
[3] The prophets draw a careful distinction between the animals of the earth and the animals of the field.
It is good things that have been called animals up to this point, just as the people closest to the Lord in heaven are termed living creatures both in Ezekiel [1; 10] and in John: 1
All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell down before the throne on their faces and worshiped the Lamb. (Revelation 7:11; 19:4)
People to whom the gospel is to be preached are also called created beings, since they are to be created anew: 2
Go throughout the world and preach the gospel to every created being. (Mark 16:15)
Voetnoten:
1. In Swedenborg's day, it was the custom to refer to the Book of John, the Epistles of John, and the Book of Revelation simply as "John." Swedenborg commonly follows this practice. [JSR]
2. The word translated "created beings" here is creaturae, from the verb creare, "create." The -tura ending referred originally to a process (here, the process of creation) but eventually to the product of the process (here, something created). This ending is a form of the future active participle, and Swedenborg seems to have its forward-looking quality in mind here, since he says "they are to be created anew." [LHC]