678、他“要为自己拿各样可吃的食物”表示良善和快乐。这从前面的阐述清楚可知，即：构成人生命的，是良善和快乐，而不是真理，因为真理从良善和快乐获得它们的生命。从幼年到老年，人的全部事实知识或理性，从来都是唯独通过良善和快乐被灌输给他的。这些事物被称为“食物”，是因为灵魂从它们获得生命，并得以维持；它们也的确是食物，因为没有它们，人的灵魂就不能存活。只要对这个问题稍加留意，谁都能看出这一点。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]678. The symbolism of he was to take for himself some food of every type that was eaten as what is pleasurable and good can be seen from statements to the effect that pleasure and goodness are the constituents of human life but that truth is not so much so [32-34, 503, 590, 668]. This is because truth acquires its life from what is pleasing and good.
From the time of childhood right through to old age, no item of knowledge or reason is ever instilled in us unless it enters by way of something pleasant and good. Because the human soul lives on goodness and pleasure and sustains itself by means of them, they are called food.{*1} They actually are food, since the soul could never survive without them, as anyone who is willing to pay attention can see.
Footnotes:
{*1} The human tendency to measure what is good by what is pleasurable figured importantly in Greek and Roman theories of human psychology and therefore in ancient philosophy. The challenge of living well, according to many ancient philosophers, lay in determining what was truly good, not just what appeared to be good, because the pleasure deriving from true good would ultimately be superior to any pleasure that tended toward self-destruction (see, for example, Plato Republic 2:505-506). Swedenborg likewise judges pleasure by its ultimate goal. In 994-995 below, he lists the various pleasures of human life, both those connected with the will and those connected with the understanding, and insists that "no one is ever forbidden to enjoy personal and sensory pleasures" as long as those pleasures originate "in the good impulses of neighborly love and in the true ideas comprising faith in the Lord" and thus conduce to helping the individual lead a useful life. See also his 1745 work Worship and Love of God 82:2; and his unpublished 1742 work Draft of a Rational Psychology (Swedenborg 2001a) 457-459. [SS]
Potts(1905-1910) 678
678. That his "taking to himself of all food that is eaten" signifies goods and delights, is evident from what has been said above: that goods and delights constitute man's life; and not so much truths, for truths receive their life from goods and delights. From infancy to old age nothing of knowledge or of reason is ever insinuated except by means of what is good and delightful, and such things are called "food" because the soul lives and derives its sustenance from them; and they are food, for without them a man's soul cannot possibly live, as anyone may know if he will but pay attention to the matter.
Elliott(1983-1999) 678
678. 'He was to take for himself of all food that is eaten' means goods and delights. This becomes clear from what has been stated about goods and delights, rather than truths, constituting a person's life, for truths receive their life from goods and delights. The whole of a person's factual knowledge or rationality, from infancy through to old age, is at no point instilled into him except through good and delight. And because it is from these that his soul receives life and is sustained they are called food, and are in reality food, for without them man's soul cannot possibly live. This anyone may see who is willing to pay any attention to the matter.
Latin(1748-1756) 678
678. Quod 'sumeret sibi ab omni cibo, qui comeditur' significet bona et jucunda, constare potest ab illis quae dicta sunt, quod vitam hominis constituant bona et jucunda, non ita vera, nam vera vitam suam accipiunt a bonis et jucundis: omne scientificum et rationale hominis ab infantia usque ad senectam, nusquam insinuatur ei nisi per bonum et jucundum; quae quia ex illis anima ejus vixit et sustentatur, vocantur cibi, et sunt cibi; nam absque illis anima hominis nusquam vivere potest; quod quisque scire potest si modo velit attendere.