640、“歌斐木”表示强烈的欲望，“房间”表示这人的两个部分，就是意愿和理解力，这一点至今尚不为人知。谁也不知道这些事物如何具有这些含义，除非他首先得知这个教会是何情形。如前面常说的，上古教会出于爱认识凡属信之物；换句话说，出于对良善的意愿拥有对真理的理解。但他们的后代经遗传还获得了一种倾向，即：属于意愿的恶欲在他们里面占了上风。他们将信之教义浸没于这恶欲，从而变成了“拿非利人”。因此，主预见到，人若继续具有这种性质，必永远灭亡，于是就规定：意愿要与理解力分离，人不会像以前那样由对良善的意愿形成，而是要通过对真理的理解而被赋予仁爱，这仁爱看似对良善的意愿。被称为“挪亚”的新教会就具有这种特征，因而具有完全不同于上古教会的性质。除了这个教会外，那时还有其它教会，如被称为“以挪士”的教会（参看创世记4:25-26），以及尚存的没有如此提到或描述的其它教会。此处只描述了“挪亚”这个教会，因为它具有另外并且完全不同于上古教会的性质。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]640. The symbolism of gopher wood as such a person's ardent cravings and of the compartments as that person's two sides — the volitional side and the intellectual side — has so far escaped human awareness. No one, moreover, will be able to see how those meanings are symbolized without first hearing how matters stood in the church called Noah.
As I have quite often said [32:2, 200, 202, 310, 337, 393, 459, 597], love made it possible for the people of the earliest church to recognize whether something they were hearing formed a part of faith. To put it another way, a will to do good gave them a comprehension of truth. But their descendants inherited also a tendency for desire (which belongs to the will) to gain the upper hand in them. They took the lessons they had learned about faith and drowned them in desire, and the result was that they became Nephilim.
Since the Lord foresaw, then, that if the human race continued in this tendency they would succumb to eternal ruin, he provided that the will should be split off from the intellect. We would not be shaped by a will to do good, as we had been previously; instead through an understanding of truth we would receive a gift for charity, which would resemble a will to do good. Such is the character that was taken on by the new church called Noah, and in consequence they possessed a nature wholly different from that of the earliest church.
Other churches besides this one also existed during the same period — one called Enosh, for example, as described above at Genesis 4:25-26.{*1} There were others too that left behind no such reference or description. Only the church Noah is depicted here, because its nature was so unlike the earliest church's and diverged so radically from it.
Footnotes:
{*1} For the description of the church represented by Enosh, see 439. [LHC] The temporal overlap of the church of Enosh with that of Noah is supported by the life spans given in the genealogy of Genesis 5, according to which Enosh, the son of Seth, would have been alive for eighty-four years after Noah was born. [LSW]
Potts(1905-1910) 640
640. That by "gopher woods" are signified concupiscences, and by the "mansions" the two parts of this man, which are the will and the understanding, no one has hitherto known. Nor can anyone know how these things are signified, unless he is first told how the case was with that church. The Most Ancient Church, as has often been said, knew from love whatever was of faith; or what is the same, from a will of good had understanding of truth. But their posterity received also by inheritance that cupidities, which are of the will, ruled over them, in which they immersed the doctrinal things of faith, and thus became "Nephilim." When therefore the Lord foresaw that if man continued to be of such a nature he would perish eternally, He provided that the will should be separated from the understanding, and that man should be formed, not as before by a will of good, but through an understanding of truth should be endowed with charity, which appears as a will of good. Such did this new church become which is called "Noah" and thus it was of an entirely different nature from the Most Ancient Church. Besides this church, there were other churches also at that time, as that which is called "Enosh" (see Gen. 4:26), and others also of which no such mention and description is extant. Only this church "Noah" is here described, because it was of another and entirely different nature from the Most Ancient Church.
Elliott(1983-1999) 640
640. That 'planks of gopher' means lusts, and that 'rooms' means the two parts of this man - that of the will and that of the understanding - nobody as yet knows. Neither can anyone see in what way they possess such meanings unless it is stated beforehand what the situation was with that Church. As stated quite often, it was from love that the Most Ancient Church knew anything that was a matter of faith, or what amounts to the same, it was from a will for good that it possessed its understanding of truth. But their descendants by heredity also derived a condition in which evil desires belonging to the will prevailed with them, desires in which they also immersed doctrinal matters concerning faith, and as a consequence became the Nephilim. When therefore the Lord foresaw that mankind would perish eternally if it continued in such a condition, He made provision for the will part to be separated from the understanding part, and for man to be formed, not as he had been formed previously by a will for good, but by having charity conferred on him through the understanding of truth, such charity looking very much like the will for good. This new Church called Noah came to be of such a nature, and so was of an entirely different disposition from the Most Ancient Church. In addition to this Church others also existed at that time, such as the one called Enosh dealt with already at Chapter 4:25, 26, and others again of which no such mention or description has come down to us. Only the Church of Noah is described here because it was altogether different in disposition from the Most Ancient Church.
Latin(1748-1756) 640
640. Quod per 'ligna gopher' significentur concupiscentiae et per 'mansiones' binae partes ejus hominis, quae sunt voluntati et intellectus, nemo adhuc novit: nec quomodo illa significantur, scire quisquam potest, nisi prius dicatur quomodo se res habuit cum illa Ecclesia. Antiquissima Ecclesia, ut saepius dictum, ex amore novit quicquid esset fidei, seu quod idem est, ex voluntate boni habuit intellectum veri; sed posteri eorum ex hereditario quoque traxerunt, quod dominarentur apud eos cupiditates quae sunt voluntatis, quibus etiam immerserunt doctrinalia fidei, inde Nephilim facti: cum itaque Dominus praevidit, si homo in tali natura maneret, quod in aeternum periret, ideo provisum a Domino ut voluntarium separaretur ab intellectuali, et formaretur homo, non ut prius, per voluntatem boni, sed per intellectum veri donaretur ei charitas, quae quasi voluntas boni apparet. Haec nova Ecclesia, quae 'Noahus' vocatur, talis facta est, et sic fuit ex prorsus alia indole quam Ecclesia Antiquissima. Praeter hanc Ecclesiam etiam aliae fuerunt tunc temporis, ut illa quae Enosh dicta, de qua prius ad cap. iv 25, 26; tum etiam, quarum non talis mentio et descriptio exstat: hic modo describitur Ecclesia Noah, quia alia et prorsus diversa indole fuit ab Antiquissima.