54、祂创造了他们，有男有女。上古教会熟知男女的内义，但当圣言的内义在他们的后代中遗失时，这奥秘也就消失了。上古之人以婚姻为最大幸福和快乐，凡能拿来与婚姻对比之物，他们都会拿来对比，以便他们能在其它事物中感知婚姻的幸福。他们也是内在人，故只以内在事物为乐。他们只是拿眼看看外在事物，思想的却是这些事物所代表的东西。所以外在事物对他们来说什么都不是，仅仅是一个跳板或手段，使他们将自己的思维转向内在事物，再从这些事物转向属天事物，从而转向主（对他们来说，主就是一切），进而转向天堂的婚姻，他们发觉自己婚姻的幸福就来自天堂的婚姻。因此，他们称属灵人的理解力为“男”，称其意愿为“女”；当两者行如一体时，他们就称它为一个婚姻。因教会对良善的情感而将教会本身称为女儿或女子、童女（如锡安的童女，耶路撒冷的童女），还称为妻子，这种习惯用语就源于该教会。关于这些问题，可参看下一章（2:24）和第三章（3:15）。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]54. Male and female he created them.
The inner meaning of male and female was very familiar to the earliest church, although their successors lost touch with this secret when they lost sight of any deeper import to the Word.
These earliest people found their greatest happiness and pleasure in marriage.{*1} Whenever they could possibly draw a comparison between something else and marriage, they did so, in order to perceive the happiness of marriage in that other entity.{*2} Being people of depth, they enjoyed only the deeper aspects of things. External objects were just for looking at; their thoughts were occupied instead with the things those objects represented. External objects, then, were nothing to them, serving only as a springboard for reflection on inner realities, and these for contemplation of heavenly realities and so of the Lord, who was everything to them. The same process caused them to reflect on the heavenly marriage,{*3} which they could tell was the source of the happiness in their own marriages.
As a result, they called the intellect in the spiritual being male and the will there female; and when the two worked together, they called it a marriage.
That religion initiated the practice, which became quite common, of calling the church Daughter or Virgin{*4} (as in "the Virgin Zion," "the Virgin Jerusalem") and also Wife, on account of its desire for good. For more on this, see the treatment of Genesis 2:24 and 3:15.{*5}
Footnotes:
{*1} Swedenborg later wrote a work on marriage — his 1768 work Marriage Love. In it he defines chastity not as celibacy, but as sexual love within a monogamous marriage, because "it comes from the Lord and answers to the marriage of the Lord and the church" (Marriage Love 143; this and all other translations from Marriage Love in these notes are by George F. Dole). The work, in fact, begins with a description of a wedding in heaven (Marriage Love 19-22; compare True Christianity 746-749). [RS]
{*2} Perhaps an example of a subject susceptible to comparison to marriage would be music. These earliest people, as Swedenborg describes them, might for instance have seen a marriage between the mechanics of a piece — melody, harmony, rhythm, and so on — and the feeling expressed in it. They might then have been pleased, in listening to it, not only by the form and content of the music itself but also by the way form and content combined in reflection of a marriage. [LHC]
{*3} By "heavenly marriage" Swedenborg here means the "marriage" between goodness and truth or love and wisdom. See 155, 162, 252. See also note 1 in 155. [LHC]
{*4} In a time when a woman was identified primarily in terms of her marital status, the term represented here by "virgin" (virgo in Latin; בְּתוּלָה [bǝṯûlā] in Hebrew; παρθένος [parthénos] in Greek) had as much to do with a woman's dependence on her father and eligibility for marriage as with her lack of sexual experience. Where possible, the word has been translated "young woman." [LHC]
{*5} The relevant treatment of Genesis 2:24 (the first edition erroneously reads 2:23 here) is in 162; the relevant part of the discussion of Genesis 3:15 is in 253. For biblical references to the church as the Daughter and the Virgin, see note 3 in 253. [SS]
Potts(1905-1910) 54
54. Male and female created He them. What is meant by "male and female" in the internal sense, was well known to the Most Ancient Church, but when the interior sense of the Word was lost among their posterity, this arcanum also perished. Their marriages were their chief sources of happiness and delight, and whatever admitted of the comparison they likened to marriage, in order that in this way they might perceive its felicity. Being also internal men, they were delighted only with internal things. External things they merely saw with the eyes, but thought of what was represented. So that outward things were nothing to them, save as these could in some measure be the means of causing them to turn their thoughts to internal things, and from these to celestial things, and so to the Lord who was their all, and consequently to the heavenly marriage, from which they perceived the happiness of their marriages to come. The understanding in the spiritual man they therefore called male, and the will female, and when these acted as a one they called it a marriage. From that church came the form of speech which became customary, whereby the church itself, from its affection of good, was called "daughter" and "virgin"-as the "virgin of Zion" the "virgin of Jerusalem"-and also "wife." But on these subjects see the following chapter, at verse 23, and chapter 3, verse 15.
Elliott(1983-1999) 54
54. Male and female He created them. What 'male and female' is used to mean in the internal sense was very well known in the Most Ancient Church, but when among later generations the interior sense of the Word was lost, so too was this particular arcanum. Marriages gave them their highest forms of happiness and delight; and they used to liken to a marriage anything that could be likened to it, in order that from it they might feel the happiness of marriage. And because they were internal men they took delight solely in internal things. As to external things, they did no more with them than take them in with their eyes, but their thoughts involved what those things represented - so much so that external things meant nothing to them except insofar as they could reflect internal things in them, and in those internal things reflect celestial things, and in so doing reflect the Lord, who was to them everything. Consequently they reflected the heavenly marriage in those things, which, they perceived, was the source of the happiness in their own marriages. For this reason they called the understanding in the spiritual man Male and the will Female, and when the two acted as one, they called it Marriage. From that Church sprang the common usage of referring to the Church itself, because of its affection for good, as 'a daughter', and also 'a virgin' - as in Virgin of Zion, Virgin of Jerusalem - and 'a wife' as well. On these matters however see verse 23 of the next chapter, and Chapter 3:15.
Latin(1748-1756) 54
54. Masculum et feminam creavit illos. Quid per masculum et feminam in sensu interno intelligatur, Antiquissimae Ecclesiae notissimum fuit, at vero apud posteros, quando sensus interior Verbi, etiam hoc arcanum periit: summae illorum felicitates et deliciae erant conjugia, et quicquid usquam assimilari potuit conjugiis, assimilabant ut inde perciperent felicitatem conjugii; et quia interni homines erant, delectabantur solum internis, externa solum spectabant oculis, sed cogitabant de illis quae repraesentabant, sic ut externa illis nihil essent, modo ut aliquid possent ab iis reflectere ad interna, et ab internis ad caelestia, et sic ad Dominum, Qui iis erat omne; proinde ad conjugium caeleste, a quo felicitas eorum conjugiorum venire percipiebant: ideo in homine spirituali intellectum vocabant masculum, et voluntatem feminam, quae cum unum agerent, dicebant conjugium: ab Ecclesia illa emanavit formula quae sollemnis facta, quod Ipsa Ecclesia ab affectione boni vocata sit 'filia,' tum 'virgo,' ut 'virgo Zion, virgo Hierosolyma,' ut et 'uxor.' Sed de his vide cap. seq. ad vers. 23, et ad cap. iii 15.