became a living soul," is signified that his external man also was made alive.
95. The life of the external man is here treated of—the life of his faith or understanding in the two former verses, and the life of his love or will in this verse. Hitherto the external man has been unwilling to yield to and serve the internal, being engaged in a continual combat with him, and therefore the external man was not then "man." Now, however, being made celestial, the external man begins to obey and serve the internal, and it also becomes "man," being so rendered by the life of faith and the life of love. The life of faith prepares him, but it is the life of love which causes him to be "man."
96. As to its being said that "Jehovah God breathed into his nostrils," the case is this: In ancient times, and in the Word, by "nostrils" was understood whatever was grateful in consequence of its odor, which signifies perception. On this account it is repeatedly written of Jehovah, that He "smelled an odor of rest" from the burnt-offerings, and from those things which represented Him and His kingdom; and as the things relating to love and faith are most grateful to Him, it is said that "He breathed through his nostrils the breath of lives." Hence the anointed of Jehovah, that is, of the Lord, is called the "breath of the nostrils" (Lam. iv. 20). And the Lord Himself signified the same by "breathing on His disciples," as written in John:—
He breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit (xx. 22).
97. The reason why life is described by "breathing" and by "breath," is also that the men of the Most Ancient Church perceived states of love and of faith by states of respiration, which were successively changed, in their posterity. Of this respiration nothing can as yet be said, because at this day such things are altogether unknown. The most ancient people were well acquainted with it, and so are those who are in the other life, but no longer any one on this earth, and this was the reason why they likened spirit or life to "wind." The Lord also does this when speaking of the regeneration of man, in John:—[1]
- ↑ In the original languages, "wind," "spirit," and "breath" are all expressed by the same word. [Reviser.]
