The Origin of the Soul, the Virgin Birth of Jesus, and Human Genetics

THE ORIGIN OF THE SOUL

In modern times there are often debates as to the origin of the soul and when the embryo becomes a viable human being. The revelations of the New Church are clear: a soul becomes infused in the embryo at conception. This matches the biological definition of the beginning of life: it begins at conception.

In prior posts, I have discussed the belief in reincarnation in some eastern religions. The revelations of the New Church provides an answer once and for all: life begins at conception. Past life memories do indeed happen, but this happened more often in ancient times when one would enter into communication with a spirit and begin to recall the memory as if it was one's own (see Heavenly Arcana, n. 5843, 5858, 6199). It would often be a similar personality, or one that had similar habits or fears, as the thoughts of our mind is the result of constant influx from the spiritual world.

Swedenborg received an amazing revelation on Christianity and the Second Coming that provides spiritual understanding that is rationally and logically consistent. The majority of the writings are based on direct revelations he received from the Lord, but occasionally he does draw upon his scientific knowledge of his day (18th century). On the surface, he made some false declarations on genetics, namely, the soul originates from the seed of the father and the body comes from the mother (e.g., Heavenly Arcana, n. 1815, 2005, 10052.2, 10125.2, True Christian Religion, n. 92, 103). This idea he may have borrowed from Aristotle (Generation of Animals, book II, 4), but Aristotle's opinion on this matter is not so simple and a bit convoluted and contradictory (for an analysis see Understanding Aristotle's Reproductive Hylomorphism). We know this is incorrect: modern genetics states that the body of a human is composed of equal parts from both the father and mother.

This presents a difficult problem, as Swedenborg makes these statements on genetics to support some of the theology concerning the virgin birth. But actually it is only an apparent falsehood. Although Swedenborg may have believed the scientific knowledge derived from Aristotle, the revelations explicitly declare that the soul is only derived from spiritual influx, not from the seed of the father or ovum of the mother:

"Who at this day does not believe that man springs from the seed and the ovum according to nature? and that there is in the seed from the first creation the ability of producing itself into such forms, first within the ovum, next in the womb, and afterward of itself, and that it is not the Divine which continues to produce? The cause of its being so believed is, that no one knows there is any influx from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4322)

And then we have this statement:

"Unless there were such an eminent perfection in prior and simple things, neither man, nor any animal, could exist and afterward subsist from seed" (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 204)

These statements are correct, but they directly contradict the other statements that says the soul comes from the seed of the father. So what gives? It is later explained that the seed of the father is merely a receptacle for the spiritual influx of the life of the soul (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 269, 310). Also, "nature contributes nothing at all to the production of plants and animals, but ...all are produced by that which flows in from the spiritual world into the natural" (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 344). Also, the image of creation originates from the spiritual, not the natural (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 315). Elsewhere, Swedenborg explicitly states that as the soul descends it becomes "clothed" with natural substances, and becomes seed (Angelic Wisdom concerning Marriage Love, n. 220, 245). This process of "clothing" or encapsulation of the soul from influx first begins with the seed of the father and ends with conception in the ovum of the mother.

The soul is spiritual in origin, and in its descent first becomes conjoined with the seed of the father and then the ovum of the mother. It is merely a receptacle for spiritual influx. A viable embryo must have spiritual influx, seed from the father and the ovum from the mother. Thus we see that when Swedenborg says the soul is from the father, or the seed of the father, he is oversimplifying for the audience of his day.

It should also be pointed out that the seed corresponds to the soul of the body (Heavenly Arcana, 3855, 9258.2) and the "giving of seed" corresponds to spiritual influx (Heavenly Arcana, 6139). Thus what Swedenborg said on the matter is true by symbolic correspondence - for the seed of the father eventually becomes the vessel of the soul at conception.

THE VIRGIN BIRTH

The gospels of Matthew and Luke describe how Jesus was born of a virgin, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 as well as some ancient myths describing a God-man born of a virgin, which probably originated from a more ancient church in the Middle East that preceded Judaism. It is by virtue of the virgin birth that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God (Luke 1:35) - the idea of a second person or a Son "born from eternity" is a later falsehood invented by men that was unknown to the early church. Although the virgin birth is not explicitly declared in the gospel of John, John states that Jesus is the "Word made flesh" and was thus unlike any other man or ordinary prophet. In later dialogue the Jews argue with Jesus over the identity of His father, whom Jesus does not reveal to them.

So why did Jesus have to be born of a virgin?  No one has been able to answer this question, if it was even asked, but the revelations do give us an answer. The virgin birth is very important as it is a sign given to explain exactly who Jesus is: His soul was Divine, and was not derived from the seed of any human father. It was God Himself who descended as to the Divine truth and became clothed in human form. The invisible God is the Father, His visible form is the Son, born in time to the virgin Mary.

Every person inherits hereditary evils from the father and mother, and the other revelation is that another reason why God had to become incarnate in human form was that so that He could dwell in a human body and fight against the temptations and power of the hells which had been inherited from the evils from the human mother. Jesus had only inherited evil tendencies from Mary in his most external outward form, but at a higher level, the level of His soul which was Divine, He could succumb to no evil. Evils from the mother can be removed, but those inherited from the father cannot (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1573). Otherwise, in no manner could the Divine be tempted. The idea of an "immaculate conception" for Mary is not only false, but it obscures the rationale for why God had to become incarnate to save humanity. It was only through the human form that God could fight directly against the hells which at the time had gained dominion and power over humanity.

FIRST PROBLEM: CHRIST IS OF THE SEED OF DAVID

The majority of Christianity accepts the virgin birth at face value without questioning why Jesus had to be virgin; even Islam accepts this fact. There is an obvious problem posed by the virgin birth: many prophecies in scripture state that the Messiah would be born from the seed of David. This was first given to David with the promise that his seed would rule over the house of Israel forever (2 Sam. 7), and this was fulfilled by Jesus. But that simply could not be true if Jesus was born of a virgin, correct? One simple explanation around this is that Mary was a descendant of the house of David - we know that as her genealogy is presented in Luke. But "seed" and "son" is always through the male line, and this can be seen in the genealogy of the kings that descended from David.

Another curious fact is that Joseph's genealogy is presented in Matthew. But that yet brings up another question: why even mention the genealogy through Joseph if he had nothing to do with the virgin birth? Joseph is specifically called "son of David" (Matt. 1:20), moreover, Mary only conceived only after she was espoused to Joseph of the "house of David" (Luke 1:27). Why, if Joseph has nothing to do with the virgin birth?

Throughout the gospels, Jesus is called "son of David," and its actually the very first statement of the New Testament (e.g., Matt. 1:1, 9:27, 12:23, 15:22, 20:30-31, 21:9,15). In Luke, David is called Jesus father (Luke 1:32) and of the lineage of David (Luke 2:4). In John, people mention how the Messiah must come from the "seed of David" (John 7:42). Paul is even more specific: concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was of the seed of David, according to the flesh (Rom. 1:3). And later, Paul again calls Jesus of the "seed of David" (Heb. 4:7). But this can only occur through the male line, not through a virgin birth.

Jesus, interestingly, points out this problem. In all three of the synoptic gospels, He asks the question: if Christ or the Messiah is the son of David, how come David calls the Messiah "Lord"? (Matt. 22:42-46) It ends with "no one was able to answer."  And an explicit answer is never given in the Gospels. One answer was given in the revelations of the New Church: Jesus indeed was a man like you and I, but upon the resurrection He made His body fully Divine, to the point that Jesus is now the Divine Human, or "God-Man," and it can no longer be said of Jesus that He is the son of Mary, for everything that was of the human nature has now been transformed into the Divine. In this manner God can interact directly with humanity without the intermediary of angels. But this still does not answer how Jesus could be of the seed of David if He was born of a virgin.

The problem I am pointing out here is not a new one. In the history of Christianity, one of the earliest heresies was a Jewish Christian sect that was later known as the "Ebionites." They regarded Jesus as a mere man and followed the "Adoptionist" heresy which declared Jesus only became the Son of God at the baptism of John. They modified the Gospel of Matthew into a forgery known as the Gospel of the Ebionites which removed the story of the virgin birth, perhaps due to the apparent discrepancy between that story and these prophecies indicating that the Messiah was to be born of the seed of David. Most accounts from the early church fathers agree that the Ebionites rejected the virgin birth and regarded Jesus as the biological son of Joseph and Mary. There are some modern scholars who followed a similar reasoning to the Ebionites and surmised the virgin birth was added later since its not mentioned in the Gospel of Mark.

SECOND PROBLEM: WHERE DID THE Y CHROMOSOME COME FROM?

The second problem with the virgin birth is an obvious problem to anyone with a knowledge of human genetics, much of it unknown before the 20th century. The problem is simple: all males have a Y chromosome, and can only be passed from male fathers. An XX chromosome means the offspring would be female and an XY chromosome means the offspring would be male. Jesus, being fully man, obviously had a Y chromosome.  Where did it come from? In the animal kingdom there is the phenomenon of parthenogenesis, where a female spontaneously gives birth when her egg undergoes division, but this always leads to female offspring.

There is one exception to this: there is a rare genetic defect among females known as "XY gonadal dysgenesis." In this case, a female is born that is female in every way except she happens to carry the Y chromosome. Such females do not undergo puberty and their ovaries are non-functional: they can never give birth. However recently a girl was discovered who had this syndrome but her ovaries were discovered to be normal: see Girl with Y chromosome sheds light on maleness.

So, was this the case for the virgin Mary?  Two (or more) things would need to occur biologically:

1. Mary would need to produce an ovum that somehow produces an XY pairing for a male, and this has never been documented among any female.
   
2. The XY ovum would need to undergo parthenogenesis as it does it some animal species, where it splits and then recombines. This has never been documented, and several very rare steps would need to happen for this process to end with a viable embryo (see Can a Virgin Give Birth? Yes—but it’s very, very, very, very unlikely.)
   

This would solve the problem of the missing Y chromosome, and even though born of a virgin, Jesus could still be said to be of the "seed of David."

Another possibility: the Holy Spirit, as it overshadowed Mary, borrowed the Y chromosome from Joseph, and created a unique vessel which became Jesus Christ, somehow done with no sexual intercourse. This would explain why the Gospels trace back the lineage of both Joseph and Mary to the house of David. Thus two conditions are satisfied: Jesus is of the seed of David and yet has no human father, for only God is His Father as the spiritual influx came direct from the Holy Spirit, that is, from the Divine alone. In this scenario, the seed of Joseph was modified to be a vessel of God's spirit, rather than house another human soul. In His day the Jews recognized Jesus as the son of Joseph (see John 6:42)

The underlying biological science of the virgin birth is merely a rational exploration into the truth of what has been revealed.  While we do not have a definite answer, I would prefer these routes of exploration rather than mutilate the gospel records. That it may be important can be seen from the fact that it took 46 years to build Herod's temple, which Jesus said represented his body. And there happen to be 46 chromosomes in the human body (see The Lost Doctrine of the Temple of the Divine Human)

The important thing to realize here, is that the Father and Son are one in Jesus Christ just as the soul and body are one. For the Father dwells in Jesus (John 14:9-10) just as the soul dwells in the body. And this is why Jesus had to be born in such a miraculous manner.

The Human Aura, and the Spiritual Nature of the Soul

In New Age metaphysics and healing, there is a theory that all humans possess an "aura" - a field of energy around them that extends a certain distance from their body.  Reports of this are ancient - beginning with the halos often seen depicted surrounding the heads of holy people, all the way to modern times, where some healers report the ability to see this aura surrounding other people. Others can see it after deep meditation - those who do see it for the first time are often surprised, sometimes wondering what is wrong with their eyes. The colors and changes in the aura are said to change according to one's emotional state and overall well being.  Is there any scientific evidence for this? No, except some healers have been able to accurately report physical diagnosis of illnesses based upon their reported ability to see changes and colors in the aura.

So all we have are witnesses who report this phenomenon, and from that some can diagnose illnesses in the body. The reason I give credence to this is that I know someone who told me he could see these auras after entering a deep meditation. The first time he experienced it he had no idea what was going on. So today, while the human aura is a part of fringe science, and generally known among mystical New Age movements outside of Christian churches, the odd thing here is that it was reported about 250 years ago by Emanuel Swedenborg, who had the ability to enter the spiritual realm for many years in his latter life.

SOME SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE CONCERNING THE HUMAN AURA

While writing this blog, I came across this interesting study done on people who claim to see human auras. An article at Medical Press, Scientific evidence proves why healers see the 'aura' of people, states the following:

Researchers in Spain have found that many of the individuals claiming to see the aura of people –traditionally called "healers" or "quacks"– actually present the neuropsychological phenomenon known as "synesthesia" (specifically, "emotional synesthesia"). This might be a scientific explanation of their alleged "virtue". In synesthetes, the brain regions responsible for the processing of each type of sensory stimuli are intensely interconnected. This way, synesthetes can see or taste a sound, feel a taste, or associate people with a particular color.

This is an interesting approach. Instead of trying to photograph the aura, as was tried in the past with Kirlian photography, scientists examined the brain activity of these people who have claimed this ability.

SWEDENBORG'S STATEMENTS CONCERNING THE HUMAN AURA

So while there is no absolute scientific evidence for the existence of such human auras reported by psychics, one thing that struck me when I read some of the observations Swedenborg made concerning his visions was that he seems to have observed such an aura - not around humans, but around the spiritual beings and angels he saw in the spiritual world.  He did not call it an "aura", but instead used the term "spiritual sphere". Some psychics report seeing colors commonly seen in rainbows.  And guess what - Swedenborg reported that sometimes colors common in rainbows can be seen in this spiritual sphere:

...the quality of a man, or of a soul after the death of the body, is known at once; and by the Lord it is known from eternity, and what it will be to eternity. His quality is perceived by angels immediately on his arrival. There is a certain sphere which exhales, as it were, from his disposition, or from everything in him; and this sphere, wonderful to say, is such that from it is perceived the faith and charity which the man has. It is this sphere that becomes visible by a bow when it so pleases the Lord. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1048).

Ever been around a person who just has "negative energy" about them?  Who just drains or sucks up any sort of happiness by their very presence? Well Swedenborg explains that - every person emanates this sphere which influences people around them, and in the spiritual world, people who emanate similar spheres tend to congregate together:

That which rules in [a person] manifests itself there by a certain sphere which is perceived by all around him. This sphere is such because it exhales from every single thing in him. The sphere of him who has regard to himself in everything, appropriates everything to himself, and, as is there said, swallows up everything that is of advantage to him, thus all the enjoyment of the spirits around him, and destroys all freedom among them; and therefore he cannot but be dissociated from them. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1316.2)

This aura is not always visible. At times it can be made visible to the senses (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1504). And the amount of information concerning the person gained from seeing such auras varies:

There are, therefore, as many spheres as there are affections and combinations of affections, which are innumerable. One's sphere is his image as it were extended outside of himself, and indeed an image of all the things that are in him. What is seen or perceived in the world of spirits is only something general, but what one is as to particulars, is known in heaven; and yet what he is as to least particulars, no one knows but the Lord alone (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1505).

In the military, they often speak of the "command presence" of a leader. Some have this "aura of authority", others do not.  Swedenborg speaks of this aura of "command presence":

A certain spirit who was known to me and with whom I had conversed while he lived in the body, appeared many times afterwards among the evil; and because he had a high opinion of himself, he acquired a sphere of superiority over others; but on this account the spirits suddenly fled away, so that none appeared but himself alone; and he filled the whole sphere round about, which was one of self-regard. ...It was afterwards said by the other spirits that they could not endure his presence, because he wished to be greater than others. Being at length brought into association with others, he was carried up on high, and so it seemed to him that he alone governed the universe; to such a degree does the love of self puff itself up, when it is left to itself. He was then cast down among the infernals. Such a lot awaits those who think themselves to be greater than others. The love of self, above every other love, is contrary to mutual love, which is the life of heaven. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1506).

One's intentions influence the quality of the aura about them. Thus others who were in positions of authority, and had regard to performing good uses through their authority, and not elevating their self above others, were seen by Swedenborg in heaven. Two people could be in the exact same position in life, and look externally the same, but based on their intention one could be worthy of heaven, and another of hell. In the work that you do, what is primary: the love of self, or rendering good use and service towards others?

In the afterlife, Swedenborg observed that similar souls would congregate with each other according to their primary love and way of thinking. From that, each angelic society would contract a similar sphere. Likewise, the spirits of hell would also contract their own sphere according to their evil and falsity. These spheres of influence would repulse each other, until according to one's love, heaven would be formed into a grand human that is constantly perfecting itself.  These angelic spheres are known in scripture as "the stars of heaven."

THE TRINITY: SOUL, BODY AND SPIRIT

While there is a lot of speculation on the nature of the human soul, Swedenborg's statements on this subject are based on the visions he received and his experiences while in the spiritual realm.  So why is it important to know of the existence of human aura? Should Christians ignore this simply because it is popular among New Age movements?  No, they should pay attention: for without knowledge of the human aura, they will never reach a true understanding of the central mystery of Christianity: the Holy Trinity.

What Swedenborg observed in the spiritual world, is that each angel has an internal soul, an external human form or spiritual body, and surrounding this body a spiritual sphere.  This trine of soul, body and spirit, is present also while we are in a physical form.  In all life forms, there is a "spiritual influx" of life from God, who is the sole origin of all life.  This spiritual influx of life is received directly into the human soul, and from there flows into the mind and thence into the body. From the body, there is an aura or spiritual sphere of this influx of life.

Likewise, something similar happened when God decided to become incarnate into a human form: when He became incarnate, the Holy Trinity was formed of His soul, His body, and His proceeding spirit.  As His body received life from His soul, and His soul was Jehovah, and as He was born of a virgin, He referred to God as "His Father".  His human form is "the Son".  The aura that extended from His body is "the Holy Spirit."  Without this understanding, people will get lost in imperfect analogies. The Trinity is a Divine emanation: the Divine Itself, which no man can see, the Divine Human, by which we can know God, and the Divine proceeding: the Holy Spirit, which extends from His body, and dwells in us and influences us. While God became incarnate, something else happened: as God is infinite and omnipresent, so these aspects of the Trinity in the human life form also became infinite and omnipresent.  Once Jesus rose from the dead, the human form had become completely unified to the Divine.

This revelation of the Holy Trinity, is something that is known to those who belong to the New Church, or the church of the New Jerusalem prophesied in the book of Revelation.  It is a distinguishing doctrine from the older Christian churches, which became corrupted when God was divided into three personal beings in the Council of Nicea in the fourth century A.D.

Do not put your trust in human opinions of philosophy, or in the councils of churches which sought to rule others through means of religion. Instead, seek the truth direct from the Lord. It is by means of revelation that God makes Himself known, not through human philosophy. And once this truth is known, you will know who you should pray to: Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior. For what is the name of the Father? It is Jesus Christ. In the New Church, people will begin to understand the true meaning of the Lord's prayer.