18、“渊面”表示未重生之人的欲望和这些欲望所产生的虚假；他完全由欲望和虚假构成，并且完全沉浸于其中。在这种状态下，他因没有光，故就像一个深渊，或某种昏暗而杂乱之物。在圣言的许多经文中，这些人也被称为深渊和海的深处；在人重生之前，它们必须干涸，或荒废。如以赛亚书：
耶和华的膀臂啊，醒来，醒来!像古时的日子，上古的世代！使海与大深渊的水干涸，使海的深处变为赎民经过之路的，不是你吗？耶和华救赎的人必归回！（以赛亚书51:9-11）
从天上观之，这种人看似一团黑物，毫无生命。这些话一般涉及先知们经常提及的人的荒废，就是重生之前的预备步骤。因为在人知道何为真理，何为良善之前，阻碍并抵抗的事物必须移除。因此，旧人必须先死去，新人才能孕育。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]18. The face of the abyss means our cravings and the falsities these give rise to; we are wholly made up of cravings and falsities and wholly surrounded by them. Because no ray of light is in us, we are like an abyss, or something disorganized and dim.
Many passages in the Word also call such people abysses and sea depths, which are drained (that is, devastated) before a person is regenerated. In Isaiah, for instance:
Wake up, as in the days of old, the generations of eternity! Are you not draining the sea, the waters of the great abyss, and making the depths of the sea a path for the redeemed to cross? May those redeemed by Jehovah return! (Isaiah 51:9-10, 11)
An individual of this type, observed from heaven, looks like a dark mass with no life at all to it.{*1} The same words involve an individual's overall spiritual devastation — a preliminary step to regeneration.{*2} (The prophets have much more to say about it.){*3} Before we can learn what is true and be affected by what is good, the things that stand in the way and resist have to be put aside. The old self must die before the new self can be conceived.{*4}
Footnotes:
{*1} Here, in a transference of perspective common in his works, Swedenborg describes a spiritual viewpoint in terms of the geography of the spiritual world. "To see from heaven" is in his theology to see people, intellectual movements, or philosophical abstractions in the "higher" light that prevails in heaven, even if those entities themselves are "lower down" in the spiritual, or even in the physical, world. (Aspects of the mind that are more spiritual can be described as both "higher" and "more inward," and less spiritual aspects as "lower" and "more outward." See also Swedenborg [1771] 2006, 739 note 2 in 828.) The nature of heaven's light, as Swedenborg explains it, is that it reveals the true underlying nature of the thing or person seen, but shows it as a pictorial or animated graphic (Secrets of Heaven 4674:2-3; Heaven and Hell 131; his 1768 work Marriage Love 269:3; True Christianity 281:12, 462:11). This light does not always flow down into spiritual areas below heaven, but when it does, it radically changes the appearance of things there (Heaven and Hell 553; True Christianity 187:2). Swedenborg reports seeing people's inner natures represented in the light of heaven as people (Secrets of Heaven 6626; Revelation Unveiled 341:2); animals (see Swedenborg's posthumously published theological work Revelation Explained [Swedenborg 1994-1997] 1005:3); birds (True Christianity 42, 334:8); monstrous, mythological, or biblical creatures (see the 1763 work Divine Love and Wisdom 254; Marriage Love 521:1; True Christianity 388:1, 389:7); or lifeless objects (see the 1763 work Divine Providence 226; True Christianity 31:4, 110:8, 113:4). For similar visions of the inner soul of certain individuals as dark or inanimate masses, see Swedenborg's posthumously published Spiritual Experiences (Swedenborg 1998-2002) 1271, 3215, 4060. For related phenomena, see notes 1 in 41 and 1 in 154. [JSR, SS]
{*2} The spiritual "devastation" to which Swedenborg alludes here is common in religious literature. A classic account of it is given by the psychologist and philosopher William James (1842-1910), who speaks of the progress from a "sick soul" to a "divided self" and finally to regeneration, or spiritual rebirth — which is often the result of a conversion experience (see James 1910, 136-188. One term frequently applied to this "devastation" is the "dark night of the soul," from the poem of the same name by the sixteenth-century Spanish mystic John of the Cross (1542-1591; see John of the Cross 1990). Swedenborg endured a similar crisis in the years 1743-1745, which marked his transformation from scientific investigator to spiritual visionary. Swedenborg's Journal of Dreams, a record he kept during the months March-October 1744, gives a vivid account of his internal upheavals during this period; see Swedenborg 2001b. [RS]
{*3} For prophetic depictions of spiritual devastation, see the following passages, which are quoted among others on this topic in 5376: Isaiah 6:9-13; 13:6; 16:4; 33:8-9; 42:14-15; 49:17-19; 51:17-23; Ezekiel 36:3-12; Zephaniah 1:14-18. [LHC]
{*4} Compare Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:9-10. [LHC, JLO]
Potts(1905-1910) 18
18. The "faces of the deep" are the cupidities of the unregenerate man, and the falsities thence originating, of which he wholly consists, and in which he is totally immersed. In this state, having no light, he is like a "deep" or something obscure and confused. Such persons are also called "deeps" and "depths of the sea" in many parts of the Word, which are "dried up" or "wasted" before man is regenerated. As in Isaiah:
Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art not thou it that drieth up the sea, the waters of the great deep, that maketh the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Therefore the redeemed of Jehovah shall return (Isa. 51:9-11). Such a man also, when seen from heaven, appears like a black mass, destitute of vitality. The same expressions likewise in general involve the vastation of man, frequently spoken of by the Prophets, which precedes regeneration; for before man can know what is true, and be affected with what is good, there must be a removal of such things as hinder and resist their admission; thus the old man must needs die, before the new man can be conceived.
Elliott(1983-1999) 18
18. 'The facea of the deep' is that person s desires and resulting falsities, of which he consists and in which he is completely absorbed; and because he has no light at all he is like the deep, or something thoroughly obscure. Throughout the Word such people are also called 'the deep' and 'the depths of the sea' which are dried up or laid waste until a person's regeneration starts, as in Isaiah,
Awake as in the days of antiquity, the generations of long ago. Was it not You that did dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep; making the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to go across? Let the ransomed of Jehovah return. Isa 51:9-11.Furthermore, when looked at from heaven, this kind of person resembles a darkened mass with no life to it. The same expressions embody within them in general the vastation in man, described many times by the Prophets, which precedes regeneration. For before a person can know what truth is, or be moved by good, the things that hinder and offer resistance must be removed. Thus the old man must die before the new one can be conceived.
Latin(1748-1756) 18
18. 'Facies abyssi' sunt ejus cupiditates et inde falsitates, es quibus et in quibus totus est; qui quia ei nihil lucis, est sicut abyssus, seu confusum obscurum quid: vocantur tales quoque abyssi et profunditates maris passim in Verbo, quae exsiccantur, seu vastantur, antequam regeneratur homo; ut apud Esaiam, Expergiscere juxta dies antiquitatis, generationes aeternitatum,...nonne tu exsiccans mare, aquas abyssi magnae, et ponens profunditates maris in viam, ut transeant redempti?...Redempti Jehovae revertantur, li 9-11.Homo etiam talis cum inspicitur e caelo, apparet instar molis nigrae cui nihil vitale. Involvunt eadem in communi vastationem hominis, de qua apud prophetas plura, quae praecedit regenerationem; nam antequam homo scire potest quid verum, et affici bono, removenda sunt quae impediunt et quae repugnant; ita vetus homo moriturus, antequam novus concipi potest.