1 Timothy 4
1
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2
Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3
Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
4
For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
5
For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
6
If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
7
But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
8
For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
9
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.
10
For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.
11
These things command and teach.
12
Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
13
Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
14
Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
15
Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
16
Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
Arcana Coelestia #42
42. Verse 21 And God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that creeps, which the waters produced abundantly according to their kinds; and all winged birds according to their kinds; and God saw that it was good.
As has been stated, 'fish' means facts, here facts quickened and brought to life through faith from the Lord. 'Sea monsters' means those facts' general sources, below which and from which details derive. Nothing whatever exists in the universe that does not depend on some general source for its commencement and continuance. In the Prophets sea monsters or whales are mentioned several times, and in those places they mean those general sources of facts. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who represents human wisdom or intelligence - that is, knowledge in general - is called 'a great sea monster', as in Ezekiel,
Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster lying in the midst of his 1 rivers, who has said, It is my river and I have made myself. Ezekiel 29:3.
[2] And elsewhere in Ezekiel,
Raise a lamentation over Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and say to him, You are like a monster in the seas, and you have come forth in your rivers, and have troubled the waters with your feet. Ezekiel 32:2
These words mean people who wish to penetrate the mysteries that are part of faith by means of facts, and so from themselves. In Isaiah,
On that day Jehovah will make a visitation with His hard and great and strong sword upon Leviathan the full-length serpent, 2 and upon Leviathan the twisting serpent, and He will slay the monsters that are in the sea. Isaiah 27:1.
'Slaying the monsters in the sea' means preventing people's knowing facts even in their general aspects. In Jeremiah,
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel has devoured me, he has troubled me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a sea monster, he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has cast me out. Jeremiah 51:34.
This stands for the fact that mankind did swallow cognitions of faith, which are 'the delicacies' here, just as the sea monster swallowed up Jonah. In that story the sea monster stands for people who treat general cognitions of faith as mere facts, and behave accordingly.
Примітки:
1. The Latin means your; but the Hebrew means his which Swedenborg has in other places where he quotes this verse.
2. i.e. a serpent that is on the move and not coiled up
