6505. And forty days were fulfilled for him. That this signifies states of preparation by means of temptations, is evident from the signification of the number "forty," as being temptations (see n. 730, 862, 2272, 2273); and from the signification of "days," as being states (n. 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850). That they are states of preparation is signified by these "days being fulfilled for him;" for by fulfilling these days preparation was made that the bodies might be preserved from putrefying, in the spiritual sense that souls might be preserved from the contagion of evil. (That by means of temptations evils and falsities are removed, and that man is thereby prepared to receive truths and goods, n. 868, 1692, 1717, 1740, 2272, 3318, 4341, 4572, 5036, 5356, 6144.)