7950. 'Even to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon' means falsified truths of faith that occupy the last place of all. This is clear from the meaning of 'the firstborn in the land of Egypt' as faith separated from charity, as just above in 7948, and so also falsified truth of faith, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'the prisoner who is in the dungeon' as those who occupy the last place of all, for his firstborn is placed at the opposite end of the scale from 'Pharaoh's firstborn who was to sit on his throne', which means falsified truth of faith that occupies the first place, 7779, 7949. 'The prisoner who is in the dungeon' is used to mean in the spiritual sense closest to the actual words one who thinks only on the level of his physical senses, and so is in utterly thick darkness so far as matters of truth and good are concerned; for he does not even possess the ability to perceive, as those who think on a more internal level of the senses do. This is the reason why those who occupy the last place of all are meant.

[2] The reason why 'the firstborn in the land of Egypt' means falsified truth of faith is that 'the firstborn of Egypt' is faith separated from charity, 7948; and those with this kind of faith are in nothing but complete and utter darkness so far as truths of faith are concerned. They cannot be in any light, and so cannot at all perceive what truth is or whether something is true. This is because all spiritual light comes from the Lord through good, that is, through charity. For the good of charity is like a flame from which light radiates, since good comes of love, and love is spiritual fire, the source of enlightenment. Anyone who imagines that people leading an evil life can also receive enlightenment in the truths of faith is very much mistaken. Their state may be such that they are able to produce proofs, that is, they may be able to prove the teachings of their Church, sometimes with skill and ingenuity; yet they are not able to see whether the things they prove are true or not. The fact that even falsity can be proved so adroitly that it seems to be the truth, and that a person is wise not when he can prove that something is right but when he can see whether it is, see 4741, 5033, 6865, 7011, 7680.

[3] Therefore a person whose life is sunk in evil is steeped in falsity arising from his evil; and no matter how well he knows what is true he does not believe it. Sometimes he thinks he does, but he is mistaken. He will be allowed to know in the next life that he does not believe it, when his perceiving is made to conform to his desiring. When that is done he will disown the truth, oppose it, and spurn it, and will acknowledge its opposite - falsity - as the truth. This now explains why those who are governed by faith separated from charity cannot help falsifying the truths of faith.

7779. 'From Pharaoh's firstborn who is to sit on his throne' means falsified truths of faith that occupy the first place. This is clear from the meaning of 'firstborn' as faith, dealt with in 352, 2435, 6344, 7035; from the representation of 'Pharaoh' as factual knowledge in general perverting the Church's truths, dealt with in 6015, 6651, 6679, 6683, 6692, so that 'Pharaoh's firstborn' is faith consisting of such truths, that is, faith consisting of falsified truths of faith; and from the meaning of 'throne' as the rule of truth, and in the contrary sense the rule of falsity, dealt with in 5313. The fact that 'Pharaoh's firstborn who is to sit on his throne' means falsified truths of faith that occupy the first place is evident from the use of the words 'even to the firstborn of the servant-girl who is behind the mill', which mean falsified truths of faith that occupy the very last place; besides which the king's son means that which is primary since the king is the head.

[2] Falsified truths occupying the first place are those which are taken to be essential truths, such as these: Faith saves a person irrespective of the life he has been leading; it saves a person in the final hour of his life; he is at that point pure and free from sins, which means that these are removed in an instant like dirt on the hands by water. Those falsified truths posit that faith does exist without charity, that so far as a person's salvation is concerned it does not matter what kind of life he leads, and also that a person who is a devil can become an angel of God in an instant. Such notions and others like them are the falsified truths occupying the first place; those that are immediately derived from them occupy the second place; and those which are remotely derived from them occupy the last place. For every truth has a long wide-ranging sequence of derivations, some of which are in a direct line from it, some at an angle, while those that merely touch on that truth stand on the outermost edges.

[3] The fact that such notions and others like them are falsified truths of faith is very plain to see. Does anyone who thinks properly not know that the life of faith makes a person spiritual, not faith except to the extent that it has been integrated into his life? A person's life is his love, and what he loves, that he wills and intends; and what he wills and intends, that he does. This is the essential nature (esse) of the person, not what he knows, or what he thinks but does not will. That essential nature of a person cannot possibly be changed into a different one by his thinking about mediation and salvation, only by new birth, which is being effected throughout a large part of his life. For he must be conceived, be born, and mature anew; and this is not effected by thinking and speaking, but by willing and acting.

[4] These matters have been stated because 'Pharaoh's firstborn' and 'the firstborn of the Egyptians' mean faith separated from charity, which - as has been shown in what has gone before - is not faith but the knowledge of such things as constitute faith. The reason why 'the firstborn of the Egyptians' represented that kind of faith is that the Egyptians, more than all others who constituted the representative Church after the time of the Flood, possessed a knowledge of the religious observances of the Church, 4749, 4964, 4966, 6004. At that time all ceremonies were representative of spiritual realities in heaven. The Egyptians had a greater knowledge of these than all others had; but in course of time they began to love merely their knowledge of them. They now began to think, as one finds at the present day, that the Church consisted entirely in knowing the kinds of things that have to do with the Church, and no longer in a charitable life. Thus they turned the whole order of the Church upside down; and once this had been turned upside down truths which are called the truths of faith were inevitably falsified. For if truths are applied in ways contrary to Divine order - as happens when they are applied to evils, or in the case of the Egyptians to acts of magic - they are no longer truths with those people but acquire from the evils to which they are applied the nature of falsities.

[5] Let the calf-worship among Egyptians serve to illustrate this. They knew what a calf represented, namely the good of charity. As long as they knew this and had this in mind, then when they saw calves, or when they prepared calves at charitable feasts, such as the ancients held, or later on when calves were used in sacrifices, they thought in a way that was sane and at the same time in company with the angels in heaven since a calf is for them the good of charity. But when they began to make calves of gold, place them in their temples, and worship them, they thought in an insane manner and at the same time in company with the hells. In that way they turned a true representative into a false one.