{"id":12108,"date":"2016-08-04T18:53:44","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T22:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordstudy.newchurch.org\/?page_id=12108"},"modified":"2016-08-04T18:53:44","modified_gmt":"2016-08-04T22:53:44","slug":"sleep","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/bible-keywords\/sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a general sense, sleeping in the Bible<\/a>\u00a0(according to Swedenborg<\/a>) represents a state<\/a> of obscured\u00a0understanding about spiritual<\/a> matters, a state in which we don’t\u00a0recognize things that are spiritually true<\/a> and not seeking what is spiritually good<\/a>. In particular \u2013 especially when someone is in a \u201cdeep sleep\u201d \u2013 it represents a state in which we believe that we think<\/a>, feel<\/a> and do everything from ourselves, without acknowledging that all life<\/a> comes from the Lord<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Passages from Swedenborg<\/b><\/p>\n

Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 147<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Verse 21 And Jehovah God caused a deep\u00a0sleep\u00a0to fall upon the man, and he fell asleep; and He took one of his ribs, and He closed up the flesh in its place.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>‘A rib’, which is a breast bone, is used to mean man’s proprium when it contains very little life, a proprium indeed that he cherishes. ‘The flesh in place of the rib’ is used to mean the proprium when it does contain some life. ‘A deep\u00a0sleep’ is used to mean that state into which he was brought so that he might seem to himself to have a proprium. This state resembles\u00a0sleepbecause a person in that state is conscious only of living, thinking, speaking, and acting from himself. But when he starts to realize that this is false, he is aroused from\u00a0sleep\u00a0so to speak and wakes up.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 150<\/b><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The state of a person when caught up in the proprium, that is, when he imagines that he lives from himself, is compared to a deep\u00a0sleep. Indeed the ancients actually called it ‘a deep\u00a0sleep’ while the Word speaks of people having ‘the spirit of deepsleep\u00a0poured out on them,* and of their\u00a0sleeping\u00a0a perpetualsleep.** The fact that man’s proprium is in itself dead, that is, that nobody possesses any life from himself, has been demonstrated in the world of spirits so completely that evil spirits who love nothing except the proprium, and insist stubbornly that they do live from themselves, have been convinced by means of living experience, and have admitted that they do not live from themselves. With regard to the human proprium I have for several years now been given a unique opportunity to know about it – in particular that not a trace of my thinking began in myself. I have also been allowed to perceive clearly that every idea constituting my thought flowed in [from somewhere], and sometimes how it flowed in, and where from. Consequently anyone who imagines that he lives from himself is in error. And in believing that he does live from himself he takes to himself everything evil and false, which he would never do if what he believed and what is actually the case were in agreement.<\/span>
      \n<\/span>* Isaiah 29:10<\/span>
      \n<\/span>** Jeremiah 51:57<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3715<\/b><\/p>\n

        \n
      1. ‘Jacob awoke from his\u00a0sleep’ means enlightenment. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sleep’ as a state of obscurity compared to wakefulness which is a state of light; therefore ‘awakening from\u00a0sleep’ in the spiritual sense means being enlightened.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5210<\/b><\/p>\n

          \n
        1. ‘And he fell asleep’ means a state of obscurity. This is clear from the meaning of ‘sleeping’ as a state of obscurity. ‘Sleep’ has no other meaning than this in the spiritual sense, even as ‘wakefulness’ means nothing else than a state of brightness; for spiritual\u00a0sleep\u00a0is a time when truths remain in obscurity, spiritual wakefulness when truths exist in brightness. And to the extent that truths are in the one state or else the other, spirits are awake or asleep. From this it is evident that ‘falling asleep’ is a state of obscurity.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

           <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          In a general sense, sleeping in the Bible\u00a0(according to Swedenborg) represents a state of obscured\u00a0understanding about spiritual matters, a state in which we don’t\u00a0recognize things that are spiritually true and not seeking what is spiritually good. In particular \u2013 especially when someone is in a \u201cdeep sleep\u201d \u2013 it represents a state in which we […]<\/p>\n

          Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"parent":10645,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-article.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12108","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-s","blog-style1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12108\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/societies.newchurch.org\/wordstudy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}