§167 time 89
a. Expressions of time in the Word mean states: 2788 , 2837 , 3254 , 3356 , 4816 [ 4814 ], 4901 , 4916 ,
7218 , 8070 , 10133 , 10605. Angels do their thinking without any concept of time or space: 3404.
The reasons for this: 1274 , 1382 , 3356 , 4882 , 4901 , 6110 , 7218 , 7381. What a “year” means in the
Word: 487 , 488 , 493 , 893 , 2906 , 7828 , 10209. What a “month” means: 3814. What a “week”
means: 2044 , 3845. What a “day” means: 23 , 487 , 488 , 6110 , 7430 [ 7443 ], 8426 , 9213 , 10062
[ 10132 ], 10605. What “today” means: 2838 , 3998 , 4304 , 6165 , 6984 , 9939. What “tomorrow”
means: 3998 , 10497. What “yesterday” means: 6983 , 7124 [ 7114 ], 7140.
b. We have a concept of eternity that includes time, while angels have one without time: 1382 ,
3404 , 8325.
They do not even know what all these temporal things are, like a year, a
month, a week, a day, an hour, today, tomorrow, or yesterday. When
angels hear these expressions from one of us (angels are always kept in
contact with us by the Lord), they perceive states instead, and things that
have to do with state. So our natural concept is changed into a spiritual
concept with the angels. This is why expressions of time in the Word
mean states, and why things proper to time like the ones listed above
mean the spiritual things that correspond to them.a
It is much the same for all the things that occur as a result of time, 166
such as the four seasons of the year called spring, summer, autumn, and
winter; the four times of day called morning, noon, evening, and night;
our own four ages called infancy, youth, maturity, and old age; and with
the other things that either occur as a result of time or happen in tempo-
ral sequence. When we think about them, it is from a temporal stand-
point; but an angel thinks about them from the standpoint of state.
Consequently, anything in them that is temporal for us changes into an
idea of state for the angel. Spring and morning change into an idea of
love and wisdom the way they are for angels in their fi rst state; summer
and noon change into an idea of love and wisdom as they are in the sec-
ond state; autumn and evening, as they are in the third state; and night
and winter into a concept of the kind of state that is characteristic in hell.
This is why similar things are meant by these times in the Word (see
above, § 155 ). We can see from this how the natural concepts that occur
in our thought become spiritual for the angels who are with us.
Since angels have no notion of time, they have a different concept of 167
eternity than we earthly people do. By “eternity,” angels perceive an infi -
nite state, not an infi nite time.b
I was thinking about eternity once, and using a concept of time I
could grasp what “to eternity” entailed—namely, without end—but not
what “from eternity” entailed and therefore not what God did before