243. And the third animal having a face like a man, signifies the Divine truth of the Word as to wisdom. By "a man," in the Word, is signified wisdom, because he is born that he may receive wisdom from the Lord, and become an angel; therefore in proportion as anyone is wise, in the same proportion he is a man. Wisdom truly human consists in knowing that there is a God, what God is, and what is of God; this the Divine truth of the Word teaches. That by "a man" is signified wisdom, is plain from the following places:
I will make a man [vir] more rare than pure gold; even a man [homo] than the gold of Ophir (Isa. 13:12). Man [vir homo] is intelligence, and man [homo] is wisdom:
The inhabitants of the earth shall be burned, and rare shall be the man that is left (Isa. 24:6). I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast (Jer. 31:27). And ye, my flock, are man, I am your God (Ezek. 34:31). The devastated cities shall be filled with the flocks of man (Ezek. 36:38). I beheld the earth, and lo, it was vacant and empty; and the heavens, and they had no light; I beheld, and lo, there was no man (Jer. 4:23, 25). They sacrifice a man, they kiss calves (Hos. 13:2). He measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem a hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, that is of an angel (Rev. 21:17). Besides many other places in which by man is signified one that is wise, and, in the abstract sense, wisdom.
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