272、创世记3:18.土地必给你长出棘刺和蓟草来，你要吃田间的草本。
“棘刺和蓟草”表示诅咒和毁灭；“你要吃田间的草本”表示他会像野兽一样生活。当内在人与外在人分离，以至于只能以一种最一般的方式作用于它时，人就会像野兽一样生活，因为使得一个人成为人的，是他通过内在人从主所接受的东西，而他从与内在人分离的外在人所获得的东西只会使他成为野兽。与内在人分离的外在人本身不过是野兽，具有类似于野兽的本性、欲望、嗜好、幻想和感觉，以及生理机能。然而，他能进行推理，并且自以为其推理能力似乎很敏锐；这种推理能力是属灵物质的产物，主的生命能通过属灵物质流入他，但属灵物质在这种人里面被败坏，并变成邪恶的生命，也就是“死亡”。这就是为何他被称为“死人”。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]272. Genesis 3:18. "And it will produce thorn and thistle for you, and you will eat the grass of the field."
Thorn and thistle mean the curse and ruination. The fact that he would eat the grass of the field means that they would live like animals.
We live like animals when our inner being is so radically separated from our outer being that the inner being cannot direct it except in the most general way. Our identity as human beings we receive from the Lord through our inner selves, but our identity as animals we receive from our outer selves. The outer self separated from the inner is in itself merely an animal; its nature, its desires, its appetites, its delusions, and its sensations are like an animal's, and its physiology is similar as well.{*1} Despite the similarities, our outer self has the ability to engage in reasoning — with keen penetration, as it seems to us — and this ability is ours by virtue of the spiritual substance through which the Lord's life can flow into us.{*2} But when that self is disconnected from our inner self, the Lord's life is perverted in us and becomes an evil life, which is death, and this is why we are then called dead.
Footnotes:
{*1} On the fascination of Swedenborg's age with the difference between animal and human, see note 1 in 196. [SS]
{*2} Swedenborg uses the term substance, both here and generally, to refer to what he sees as the spiritual equivalent of matter. See Marriage Love 31. [LHC]
Potts(1905-1910) 272
272. Verse 18. And the thorn and the thistle shall it bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. By the "thorn and the thistle" are meant curse and vastation; and by "thou shalt eat the herb of the field" is signified that he should live as a wild animal. Man lives like a wild animal when his internal man is so separated from his external as to operate upon it only in a most general manner, for man is man from what he receives through his internal man from the Lord, and is a wild animal from what he derives from the external man, which, separated from the internal, is in itself no other than a wild animal, having a similar nature, desires, appetites, phantasies, and sensations, and also similar organic forms. That nevertheless he is able to reason, and, as it seems to himself, acutely, he has from the spiritual substance by which he receives the influx of life from the Lord, which is however perverted in such a man, and becomes the life of evil, which is death. Hence he is called a dead man.
Elliott(1983-1999) 272
272. Verse 18 And thorn and thistle will it bring forth for you, and you will eat the plant of the field.
'Thorn and thistle' are used to mean curse and vastation. 'He was to eat the plant of the field' means that he was to live as a wild animal does. A person lives as a wild animal when the internal man is so separated from the external that it operates into it only in a very general way. For what comes from the Lord by way of the internal man makes a person human, but what comes from the external, which when separated from the internal within him is nothing but a wild animal, makes a person a wild animal. The disposition within him is similar to that of a wild animal, as are the desires, the appetites, the delusions, and the sensations. His organic parts are similar too. His ability however to reason, and as it seems to him, to do so incisively, is the product of spiritual substance, by way of which the Lord's life is able to flow into him, but which is corrupted with that kind of person and becomes a life of evil which is 'death'. This is why he is called a 'dead' man.
Latin(1748-1756) 272
272. Vers. 18. Et spinam et carduum proferet tibi, et edes herbam agri. Per 'spinam et carduum' intelligitur maledictio et vastatio: [per] 'quod ederet herbam agri' significatur quod viveret ut fera. Ut fera vivit cum internus homo separatur ab externo ita ut non operetur in eum nisi communissime; nam quod homo sit homo, habet per internum hominem a Domino; at quod homo sit fera, habet ab externo, qui separatus ab interno in se non aliud est quam fera; similis natura ei inest, similes cupiditates, similes appetitus, similes phantasiae, et similes sensationes; organica quoque sunt similia: quod tamen ratiocinari possit ac, ut sibi videtur, astute, hoc habet a spirituali substantia, per quam vita Domini influere possit, sed quae apud talem pervertitur et fit vita mali, quae est mors; inde vocatur mortuus.