第15节。在这种情况下，它是来自善的原则，而不是来自善本身；但它是通过从神圣的爱的流入而成圣的，慈善被承认是来自主，但只是在外部的方式。

866. 'A raven' means falsities. This in a general way becomes clear from what has been stated and shown already about birds meaning intellectual concepts, rational concepts, and facts, and in like manner the opposite of these, which are reasonings and falsities. Both sets of things are described in the Word by various species of birds, things of a true understanding by harmless, beautiful, and clean birds, those of a false understanding however by harmful, ugly, and unclean ones, each depending on the species of truth or falsity under description. Gross and impenetrable falsities are described by 'owls' and 'ravens' - by owls because they live in the darkness of the night, by ravens because they are black; as in Isaiah,

The owl and the raven will dwell in it. Isaiah 34:11.

Here the subject is the Jewish Church, and the fact that nothing but falsities, described as 'the owl and the raven', resided in it.