35. 28 shows that the Old Testament prophets represented the Lord in respect to the Word and therefore meant the teaching of the church drawn from the Word, and that because of this they were addressed as “children of humanity.” It follows from this that by the various things they suffered and endured they represented the violence done to the literal meaning of the Word by Jews. Isaiah, for example, took the sackcloth off his waist and the sandals off his feet and went naked and barefoot for three years (Isaiah 20:2-3). Similarly, Ezekiel the prophet took a barber’s razor to his head and his beard, burned a third of the hair in the middle of the city, struck a third with a sword, and scattered a third to the wind; also, he bound a few hairs in his hems and eventually threw a few into the midst of a fire and burned them (Ezekiel 5:1-4).

Since the prophets represented the Word and therefore meant the teaching of the church drawn from the Word (as just noted), and since the head means wisdom from the Word, the hair and the beard mean the outermost form of truth. It is because of this meaning that inflicting baldness on yourself was a sign of immense grief and being discovered to be bald was an immense disgrace. This and this alone is why the prophet shaved off his hair and his beard - to represent the state of the Jewish church in regard to the Word. This and this alone is why two she-bears tore apart forty-two boys who called Elisha bald (2 Kings 2:23-25)-because as just noted the prophet represented the Word, and his baldness signified the Word without an outermost meaning.

We shall see in §49 below that the Nazirites represented the Lord’s Word in its outermost forms, which is why they were commanded to let their hair grow and not to shave any of it. In Hebrew, “Nazirite” actually means “hair.” It was commanded also that the high priest was not to shave his head (Leviticus 21:10) and that the fathers of their families as well were not to do so (Leviticus 21:5).

That is why they regarded baldness as such an immense disgrace, as we can tell from the following passages:

There will be baldness upon all heads, and every beard will be cut off. (Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 48:37)

There will be shame upon all faces and baldness on all heads. (Ezekiel 7:18)

Every head was made bald and every shoulder hairless. (Ezekiel 29:18)

I will put sackcloth around all waists and baldness upon every head. (Amos 8:10)

Make yourself bald and cut off your hair because of your precious children; make yourself still more bald, because they have left you and gone into exile. (Micah 1:16)

Here making yourself bald and making yourself still more bald means distorting truths of the Word in its outermost forms. Once they have been distorted, as was done by Jews, the whole Word is ruined, because the outermost forms of the Word are what it rests on and what holds it up. In fact, every word in it is a base and support for the Word’s heavenly and spiritual truths.

Since a head of hair means truth in its outermost forms, in the spiritual world everyone who trivializes the Word and distorts its literal meaning looks bald; but those who respect and love it have good-looking hair. On this, see §49 below.

2986. 'From the sons of Heth' means that it consisted of gentiles. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'the sons of Heth'. The sons of Heth were not those among whom the Church was established but those by whom that Church is represented, for all things in the Word are representative and do not mean the actual persons whose names are mentioned but things that belong to the Lord's kingdom and Church. It has been stated in various places already that 'the sons of Heth' means a new Church, or what amounts to the same, those who belong to that new Church. But that it was a new Church consisting of or drawn from the gentiles is evident from what Abraham said to the sons of Heth, 'I am a stranger and an inhabitant among you', verse 4, which meant that the Lord was not known to them, yet He was nevertheless able to be with them, 2915. From this it is evident that 'the sons of Heth' means a Church consisting of gentiles. It cannot be said of any others that the Lord is not known to them.

[2] Furthermore it should be recognized that when any Church ceases to be a Church, that is, when charity perishes, and a new one is established by the Lord, rarely if ever is this done among those with whom the old Church existed. Instead it is established among those with whom no Church existed previously, that is, among gentiles. This is what happened when the Most Ancient Church perished. At that time a new one which was called Noah, or the Ancient Church following the Flood, was established among gentiles, that is, among those where no Church existed previously. It was similar when this Church perished. At that time the semblance of a Church was introduced among Abraham's descendants through Jacob, and so again among gentiles; for Abraham at the time of his call was a gentile, see 1356, 1992, 2559. The actual descendants of Jacob in Egypt became more gentile still, so much so that they had no knowledge at all of Jehovah or consequently of any Divine worship. After this semblance of a Church had come to an end, the Primitive Church was established from among the gentiles, the Jews having been rejected. It will be similar with the Church existing at present called the Christian Church.

[3] The reason why it is among gentiles that the Lord establishes a new Church is that they do not possess any false assumptions that are contrary to the truths of faith, for they have no knowledge of the truths of faith. False assumptions absorbed from early childhood and subsequently confirmed must first of all be dispelled before a person can be regenerated and become a member of the Church. ¹ Indeed gentiles are not able to profane holy things by means of evils of life, for no one can profane what is holy if he does not know what it is, 593, 1008, 1010, 1059. As gentiles do not have such knowledge, there are no stumbling-blocks to hinder them. Thus their state is such that they are better able to receive truths than those who belong to the Church; and all those among them who are leading a good life receive truths without difficulty, see 932, 1032, 1059, 1327, 1328, 1366, 2049, 2051, 2589-2604.

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