Swedenborg Arcana Caelestia Vol. I (1750)

...themselves, because they contain faith in Him, and are signified here by "a living soul." They also have the appearance of a body, here signified by "that which moves," or "creeps." But these are still arcana to man; yet because the subject here is the living soul and that which moves, they are only to be mentioned here.

42. Vers. 21. And God created great whales, and every living soul that creeps, which the waters brought forth after their kinds; and every bird of wing after its kind; and God saw that it was good. Fish, as has been said, signify scientifics Scientifics: factual or worldly knowledge, usually considered as the "ground" for higher truths., here animated by faith from the Lord, and thus living. Whales Original Latin: Cetos. In the context of the Hebrew Tannin, this refers to great sea monsters or large aquatic animals. signify their general principles, under which and from which are the particulars. Nothing at all exists in the universe that is not under some general principle, in order to exist and subsist. In the prophets, whales or sea-monsters are mentioned several times, and there they signify the general principles of scientifics. Pharaoh, King of Egypt—by whom is represented human wisdom or intelligence, that is, science in general—is called a great whale; as in Ezekiel: "Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh, King of Egypt, the great whale, lying in the midst of your rivers, who has said, 'My river is mine own, and I have made myself,'" XXIX: 3. And elsewhere: "Take up a lamentation for Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and say to him, 'You are like a whale in the seas, and you have broken forth in your rivers, and have troubled the waters with your feet,'" XXXII: 2. By which are signified those who wish to enter into the mysteries of faith by means of scientifics, and thus from themselves. In Isaiah: "In that day, Jehovah will visit with His hard, and great, and strong sword, upon Leviathan the fleeing serpent, and upon Leviathan the crooked serpent, and He shall slay the whales that are in the sea," XXVII: 1. By "slaying the whales in the sea" is signified that they do not even know the general principles. In Jeremiah: "Nebuchadnezar, King of Babylon, has eaten me, he has troubled me, he has made me an empty vessel; he has swallowed me up like a whale, he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has cast me out," LI: 34. This means that he has swallowed up the knowledges of faith, which are here the delicacies, just as the whale swallowed Jonah, where the whale stands for those who possess the general principles of the knowledges of faith as scientifics, and act in such a way.

43. Vers. 22. And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let the bird multiply on the earth." Everything that has life in itself from the Lord fructifies and multiplies itself immensely; as long as a person lives in the body, it is not so, but in the other life, it is stupendous. "To be fruitful" in the Word is predicated of those things which are of love, and "to multiply" of those things which are of faith; the fruit which is of love has seed, by which it so multiplies itself. The blessing of the Lord also signifies in the Word fruitfulness and multiplication, because these are from that blessing. Vers. 23. And it was evening, and it was morning, the fifth day.

44. Vers. 24, 25. And God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living soul after its kind; beast, and that which moves, and the wild beast of the earth after its kind"; and it was so. And God made the wild beast of the earth after its kind, and the beast after its kind, and every thing that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. A human being, like the earth, can produce nothing good unless the knowledges of faith have first been sown in him, from which he may know what is to be believed and...