Genesis: Chapter 2.

Chapter 1 was all about the six steps of an individual’s spiritual growth (regeneration) and the creation of the first, most perfect church on earth, which he calls the Most Ancient Church. Chapter 2 of Genesis, and Swedenborg’s commentary on it, zooms in on this perfect church and the state of being a truly spiritual person. It explains the good state they were in, how their mind worked, and the one crucial rule they needed to follow to stay that way. Here’s the informal summary:

The Divine Rest and a New Era (Verses 1-4).

The chapter starts with “the heavens and the earth were finished…and God rested on the seventh day.” This isn’t about God needing a nap! The “six days” in Chapter 1 were the stages of a person (or the Church) being regenerated. The Seventh Day means the process is complete. Spiritual Meaning: The person has reached a state of peace and inner union with the Lord. They are no longer struggling through the messy process of spiritual growth—it’s done. The “heavens” (their internal mind) and “earth” (their external life) are now working together in harmony, all aligned with the Divine. This is the ultimate state of love and charity. The Most Ancient Church: This section is also talking about the people of the Most Ancient Church being established in this state of perfection. They lived in complete innocence, guided by love for the Lord.

The Nature of the Spiritual Human (Verses 5-7).

Next, the story shifts and says, “there was no shrub of the field…and there was no man to till the ground.” But then, “Jehovah God formed man, dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a living soul.” This is a different, deeper look at humanity than in Chapter 1. No Rain/No Tiller: “No rain” means they had no need for formal, outside instruction (like the Bible or doctrine) because they were taught directly by the Lord. “No man to till the ground” means that before true spiritual life, they didn’t have any spiritual good that came from their own effort. Man Formed from Dust: Forming man from the “dust of the ground” means that a person’s external, natural self is completely separate from their true spiritual life. The natural mind is where all the worldly, sensory stuff lives.

The Breath of Lives.

This is the key moment. “Breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives” means the Lord poured celestial life (the life of love and goodness) directly into the person’s soul. When that Divine life (the soul) fills the natural mind (the dust body), the person becomes a “living soul”—a being capable of heavenly love and perception. This is how the Most Ancient Church lived: through direct perception from the Lord, not through reasoned, intellectual faith. Swedenborg even talks about how these people had a unique internal respiration that connected them with the angels.

The Garden of Eden Explained (Verses 8-14)

The Garden of Eden, for Swedenborg, is not a geographical place. It’s a symbol for the celestial wisdom and intelligence of this Most Ancient Church. Eden and The Garden: Eden itself is the person’s love for the Lord (celestial love). The Garden is the resulting wisdom that flows from that love. Everything in the garden represents a type of spiritual goodness and truth that makes up the mind of a regenerated person.

The Trees.

The Tree of Lives: This is the most important one. It represents Love and Goodness from the Lord in the person’s will. A person who eats from this tree is living from a place of pure, direct Divine love. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: This is about Faith separated from Love, or relying on your own rational understanding and knowledge to figure out what’s good and true, rather than relying on pure love and perception from the Lord. It’s a dangerous shift from perceiving good to merely knowing about it intellectually.

The Rivers.

The four rivers that flow out to water the garden symbolize the four steps of doctrine and knowledge that flow from heavenly love, reaching down to the most external parts of the mind. They represent the progression of wisdom:

Pishon: The river of Intelligence.
Gihon: The river of Knowledges.
Hiddekel (Tigris): The river of Reason or rational thought.
Perath (Euphrates): The river of Sensory or outer knowledge.

The whole image shows that true wisdom starts in the deepest, most loving part of the mind and flows out to influence the entire external life.

The Central Command (Verses 15-17).

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.” To Dress and to Keep: This means the person’s job is to take care of (cultivate) the wisdom they’ve been given and protect it from evil.

The Prohibition.

This is the whole point of the chapter: the command not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This rule tells them: “Don’t rely on your own understanding to determine what is good and true.” The people of the Most Ancient Church were warned that if they started using their own, separate, natural logic (the knowledge of good and evil) to question and intellectualize their pure, direct perception from the Lord, they would spiritually “die” (lose their celestial life).

Summary.

Genesis 2 is the description of the ideal spiritual person and church. It’s the picture of a mind operating purely from Love (Eden), which generates effortless Wisdom (the Garden). The entire chapter serves as a preface to the spiritual fall—Chapter 3 will show how they broke the one rule: by starting to trust their own, independent knowledge and rational thoughts over the immediate, pure love and guidance they received from the Divine.

Taken from Arcana Coelestia Volume 1.

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