Arcana Coelestia, Vol. VII

[2] In respect to His Human the Lord also had an external and an internal, because it pleased Him to be born like other men. The external (that is, His external man) was represented by Jacob, and afterward by Israel; but His internal man is represented by Joseph. This internal man is what is called the celestial spiritual from the rational; or what is the same thing, the Lord’s internal, which was human, was the celestial of the spiritual from the rational. This, and the glorification of it, are treated of in the internal sense of this and the following chapters wherein Joseph is treated of. But what the celestial of the spiritual from the rational is has been explained above (n. 4286, 4585, 4592, 4594), namely, that it is above the celestial of the spiritual from the natural, which is represented by Israel.

[3] The Lord was indeed born as are other men, but it is known that he who is born a man derives what is his from both the father and the mother, and that he has his inmost from the father, but his exteriors (that is, the things which clothe this inmost) from the mother. Both that which he derives from the father, and that which he derives from the mother, are defiled with hereditary evil. But it was different with the Lord: that which He derived from the mother in like manner had in it an heredity such as is that of any other man; but that which He derived from the Father, who was Jehovah, was Divine. For this reason the Lord’s internal man was not like the internal of another man; for His inmost was Jehovah. This is therefore the intermediate which is called the celestial of the spiritual from the rational. But concerning this, of the Lord’s Divine mercy more will be said in the following pages.