** In Bethlehem **

 AC 4594 [2-3]

The reason why the Lord was born there
and not elsewhere,
is that He alone was born a spiritual celestial man,
but all others natural,
with the capacity or ability to become
either celestial or spiritual
by regeneration from the Lord.

The reason why the Lord
was born a spiritual celestial man
was that He might make His Human Divine,
and this according to order
from the lowest degree to the highest,
and might thus dispose into order
all things in the heavens and in the hells.
For the spiritual celestial is intermediate between
the natural or external man
and the rational or internal man.

For from the most ancient time
"Ephrath" signified the spiritual of the celestial,
and therefore afterwards
"Bethlehem" had the same signification.