9467. 'And purple' means the celestial love of good. This is clear from the meaning of 'purple' as the celestial love of good, the reason why this love is meant by 'purple' being that by the colour red the good of celestial love is meant. For there are two basic colours from which all others are derived, the colour red and the colour white. The colour red means good which belongs to love, while the colour white means truth which belongs to faith. The reason why red means good belonging to love is that this colour exists before all else as fire, and fire means the good of love; and the reason why white means truth belonging to faith is that before all else that colour is light, and light means the truth of faith.

'Fire' means the good of love, see 5215, 6314, 6832, 6834, 6849, 7324, 9434.

'Light' means the truth of faith, 2776, 3195, 3636, 3643, 3993, 4302, 4413, 4415, 5400, 8644, 8707, 8861, 9399, 9407.

'Red' means the good of love, 3300.

'White' means the truth of faith, 3993, 4007, 5319.

[2] From all this it is evident what all other colours mean; for in the measure that they are derived from red they mean good belonging to love, and in the measure that they are derived from white they mean truth belonging to faith. All the colours that appear in heaven are modifications of heavenly light and flame, on those two levels. For heavenly light is real light; and essentially it is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good. Therefore modifications of that light and flame are different variations of truth and good, and so of intelligence and wisdom.

[3] All this now shows how it came about that the veils and curtains of the tent, and also Aaron's garments, were to be woven out of violet, purple, twice-dyed scarlet, and linen thread, Exodus 25:4; 26:31, 36; 27:16; 28:6, 15, namely in order that celestial realities belonging to good and spiritual realities belonging to truth, which are the subject in what follows below, might be represented by them.

[4] Good from a celestial origin is again meant by 'purple' in Ezekiel,

Fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt was your sail; violet and purple from the islands of Elishah was your covering. Ezekiel 27:7.

This refers to Tyre, by which cognitions or knowledge of truth and good are meant. 'Violet and purple covering' stands for cognitions of truth and good from a heavenly origin.

[5] Similar things are meant by 'purple and fine linen' in Luke,

There was a certain rich man (homo) who was clothed in purple and fine linen and indulged in delicacies splendidly every day. Luke 16:19.

'A rich man' is used to mean in the internal sense the Jewish nation, and the Church there, which was said to be 'rich' because of the cognitions or knowledge of good and truth from the Word which existed there. Garments of 'purple and fine linen' are those cognitions, 'of purple' meaning cognitions of good, and 'of fine linen' cognitions of truth, both from a heavenly origin because they come from the Divine. 'Purple' also has a similar meaning in the Book of Revelation,

The woman sitting on a scarlet beast was clothed in purple and scarlet. Revelation 17:3-4.

This refers to Babylon, which means the Church where the holy things of the Word are put to unholy ends, that is, to exercising control in heaven and on earth, and so to ends that spring from hellish self-love and love of the world.

4906. 'Bring her out, and let her be burnt' means that it - that is to say, the internal aspect of the Church which Tamar represented - should be exterminated. This is clear from the meaning of 'bringing her out, and burning her' as exterminating, 'bringing out' having reference to the truth and 'burning' to the good which were to be exterminated. The use of 'burning' in reference to the extermination of good is clear from many places in the Word. The reason for the usage is that in the spiritual sense 'fire' and 'flame' mean good, 934, and the heat radiated from them the affection for good, while 'fire' and 'flame' in the contrary sense mean evil, and the heat radiated from these the affection for evil, 1297, 1861, 2446. Also, in actual fact good is spiritual fire from which spiritual heat which is life-giving is radiated; and evil too is a fire, but from this a heat which is a consuming one is radiated. Anyone who turns his attention to this matter and reflects on it can plainly see that the good of love is spiritual fire, and that the affection for that good is spiritual heat if he reflects on the question where do man's vital fire and heat come from, he will discover that love is the source of it; for as soon as love departs a person begins to grow cold, but as love increases in him he becomes warmer. Unless man's vital fire and heat came from that source he could not possibly have life at all. But this life-bringing fire or spiritual heat becomes among the evil a destroying and consuming fire, for in their case it is converted into this kind of fire. Among living creatures which do not possess reason spiritual heat likewise flows in and brings life, but life which is varied, depending on the ways in which their organic forms, and therefore their knowledge and innate affections receive that life, as with bees and all other creatures.