Of note is that, according to Swedenborg, the stories from the Ancient Word were all made-up history, written in correspondences. This would also hold for the first 11 chapters of Genesis. According to Swedenborg, making up such stories was an accepted custom in churches of antiquity, and spread widely. In fact, in Swedenborg's view, the actual history recorded in the Word was chosen because it had correspondence to an internal sense. For example, psalm 78 tells the history of Israel, and actually says it is a parable.