Arcana Coelestia # 353
353. 'Fat' means the celestial itself, which also is the Lord's. The celestial consists in everything that is an aspect of love. Faith too is celestial when it has its origin in love. Charity is the celestial, and all good stemming from charity is celestial. All of these were represented by 'the fat' in sacrifices, especially by the fat on the liver or omentum, by the fat on the kidneys, by the fat covering the entrails, and by that actually on the entrails. These were consecrated and burnt on the altar, Exodus 29:13, 22; Leviticus 3:3-4, 14; 4:8-9, 19, 26, 31, 35; 8:16, 25, and were consequently called 'the bread offered by fire for an odour of rest' for Jehovah, 1 Leviticus 3:15-16. For this reason the Jewish people were forbidden to eat any of the fat from animals, and this was called 'a perpetual statute throughout their generations', Leviticus 3:17; 7:23, 25. They were forbidden to do so because that Church was such that it did not acknowledge anything internal, still less anything celestial.
[2] That 'fat' means celestial things and goods that flow from charity is clear in the Prophets, as in Isaiah,
Why do you weigh out silver for 2 that which is not bread, and your labour on that which does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will find its delight in fatness. Isaiah 55:2.
In Jeremiah,
I will fill the soul of the priests with fat, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness. Jeremiah 31:14.
Here it is quite clear that 'fat' is not used to mean fat but celestial-spiritual good. In David,
They will be filled with the fat of Your house, and You givest them drink from the river of Your delights; for with You is the fountain of life, in Your light do we see light. Psalms 36:8-9.
Here 'fat' and 'the fountain of life' stand for the celestial, which consists in love, and 'river of delights' and 'light' stand for the spiritual, which consists in faith deriving from love. In the same author,
My soul will be satisfied with fat and fatness, and my mouth will praise You with joyful lips. 3 Psalms 63:5.
Here similarly 'fat' stands for the celestial, 'joyful lips' 3 for the spiritual. It is quite clear that the celestial is meant for the reason that 'the soul will be satisfied'. And first-fruits, which were the firstborn of the earth, are for the same reason called 'fat' in Numbers 18:12.
[3] Since there are countless genera of celestial things, and still more countless species of them, they are described in general in the words of the song which Moses recited to the people,
Butter from the cattle, and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs and rams, the breed 4 of Bashan, and of goats, with the kidney-fat of wheat; and of the blood of the grape you will drink unmixed wine. Deuteronomy 32:14.
Nobody can possibly know what these expressions mean except from the internal sense. Without the internal sense nobody is able to know what butter from the cattle means, or milk from the flock, or the fat of lambs, or the fat of rams and of goats, or the breed 4 of Bashan, or the kidney-fat of wheat, or the blood of the grape. Without the internal sense they would be mere words and nothing more. In reality every single thing mentioned there means the genera and species of celestial things.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. The Latin here means for a rest to Jehovah but comparison with the original Hebrew suggests that Swedenborg intended for an odour of rest, as in 2165:2, 5943:3.
2. or Why do you spend money on
3. literally, lips of songs
4. literally, sons
Exodus 29
1
"This is the thing that you shall do to them to make them holy, to minister to me in the priest's office: take one young bull and two rams without blemish,
2
unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil: you shall make them of fine wheat flour.
3
You shall put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the two rams.
4
You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and shall wash them with water.
5
You shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the coat, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastplate, and clothe him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod;
6
and you shall set the turban on his head, and put the holy crown on the turban.
7
Then you shall take the anointing oil, and pour it on his head, and anoint him.
8
You shall bring his sons, and put coats on them.
9
You shall clothe them with belts, Aaron and his sons, and bind headbands on them: and they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute: and you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons.
10
"You shall bring the bull before the Tent of Meeting: and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull.
11
You shall kill the bull before Yahweh, at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
12
You shall take of the blood of the bull, and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger; and you shall pour out all the blood at the base of the altar.
13
You shall take all the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar.
14
But the flesh of the bull, and its skin, and its dung, you shall burn with fire outside of the camp: it is a sin offering.
15
"You shall also take the one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram.
16
You shall kill the ram, and you shall take its blood, and sprinkle it around on the altar.
17
You shall cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its innards, and its legs, and put them with its pieces, and with its head.
18
You shall burn the whole ram on the altar: it is a burnt offering to Yahweh; it is a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.
19
"You shall take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram.
20
Then you shall kill the ram, and take some of its blood, and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and on the tip of the right ear of his sons, and on the thumb of their right hand, and on the big toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood around on the altar.
21
You shall take of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron, and on his garments, and on his sons, and on the garments of his sons with him: and he shall be made holy, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him.
22
Also you shall take some of the ram's fat, the fat tail, the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of consecration),
23
and one loaf of bread, one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before Yahweh.
24
You shall put all of this in Aaron's hands, and in his sons' hands, and shall wave them for a wave offering before Yahweh.
25
You shall take them from their hands, and burn them on the altar on the burnt offering, for a pleasant aroma before Yahweh: it is an offering made by fire to Yahweh.
26
"You shall take the breast of Aaron's ram of consecration, and wave it for a wave offering before Yahweh: and it shall be your portion.
27
You shall sanctify the breast of the wave offering, and the thigh of the wave offering, which is waved, and which is heaved up, of the ram of consecration, even of that which is for Aaron, and of that which is for his sons:
28
and it shall be for Aaron and his sons as their portion forever from the children of Israel; for it is a wave offering: and it shall be a wave offering from the children of Israel of the sacrifices of their peace offerings, even their wave offering to Yahweh.
29
"The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him, to be anointed in them, and to be consecrated in them.
30
Seven days shall the son who is priest in his place put them on, when he comes into the Tent of Meeting to minister in the holy place.
31
"You shall take the ram of consecration, and boil its flesh in a holy place.
32
Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
33
They shall eat those things with which atonement was made, to consecrate and sanctify them: but a stranger shall not eat of it, because they are holy.
34
If anything of the flesh of the consecration, or of the bread, remains to the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire: it shall not be eaten, because it is holy.
35
"You shall do so to Aaron, and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. You shall consecrate them seven days.
36
Every day you shall offer the bull of sin offering for atonement: and you shall cleanse the altar, when you make atonement for it; and you shall anoint it, to sanctify it.
37
Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar, and sanctify it: and the altar shall be most holy; whatever touches the altar shall be holy.
38
"Now this is that which you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day continually.
39
The one lamb you shall offer in the morning; and the other lamb you shall offer at evening:
40
and with the one lamb a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mixed with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil, and the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink offering.
41
The other lamb you shall offer at evening, and shall do to it according to the meal offering of the morning, and according to its drink offering, for a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.
42
It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the Tent of Meeting before Yahweh, where I will meet with you, to speak there to you.
43
There I will meet with the children of Israel; and the place shall be sanctified by my glory.
44
I will sanctify the Tent of Meeting and the altar: Aaron also and his sons I will sanctify, to minister to me in the priest's office.
45
I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.
46
They shall know that I am Yahweh their God, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them: I am Yahweh their God.
