243. The third living creature had a face like a human being. This symbolizes the Divine truth of the Word in respect to its wisdom.

A human being in the Word symbolizes wisdom, because the human being was born to receive wisdom from the Lord and become an angel. The wiser someone is, therefore, the more human he is. True human wisdom consists in perceiving the existence of God, the nature of God, and what pertains to God. This is what the Divine truth of the Word teaches.

That a human being symbolizes wisdom is apparent from the following passages:

I will make a man more rare than fine gold, and a human being more rare than the gold of Ophir. (Isaiah 13:12)

A man means intelligence, and a human being wisdom.

...the inhabitants of the earth shall be burned up, and rare will be the human being left. (Isaiah 24:6)

...I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of a human being and the seed of an animal. (Jeremiah 31:27)

You are My flock...; you are humankind, I am your God. (Ezekiel 34:31)

...the ruined cities shall be filled with a flock of humankind. (Ezekiel 36:38)

I looked upon the earth when, lo, it was empty and void, and to the heavens when they had not their light... I looked when, lo, there was no human being... (Jeremiah 4:23, 25)

They sacrifice a human being, they kiss the calves. (Hosea 13:2)

He measured the wall (of the Holy Jerusalem): one hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a human being, which is that of an angel. (Revelation 21:17)

So, too, in many other places, where a human being symbolizes someone who is wise, and in an abstract sense, wisdom itself.

4171. 'That which was torn [by beasts] I did not bring to you' means that evil for which He was not blameworthy resided with that good. This is clear from the meaning of 'torn' as death caused by another, and so evil for which He was not blameworthy. The evils present with man have many origins. The first lies in the heredity passed down to him by the series of transmissions to his father from grandfathers and forefathers, and then from his father, in whom evils have thereby become heaped up, down to himself. The second origin lies in what he himself makes actual, that is to say, in what a person acquires to himself by a life of evil. This evil consists partly of that which he draws from his heredity, as from an ocean of evils, and puts into practice, and partly of much more which he adds for himself to these. This is the source of the proprium which a person acquires to himself. But this actual evil which a person makes his own also has various origins, though in general there are two. First there is the evil he receives from others, for which he is not worthy of blame; second there is that which he adopts of his own accord and for which he is thus worthy of blame. That which anyone receives from others and for which he is not blameworthy is meant in the Word by 'that which is torn', whereas that which he adopts of his own accord and for which he is thus blameworthy is meant in the Word by 'a carcass'.

[2] This explains why, as in the Ancient Church so also in the Jewish they were forbidden to eat anything that had died naturally, that is, was a carcass, or to eat 'that which had been torn'. This prohibition is contained in the following,

Every soul - homeborn or settler - who eats a carcass ¹ or that which has been torn to pieces shall wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; he shall be unclean until the evening, and then he shall be clean; and if he has not washed himself and bathed his flesh he shall bear his iniquity. Leviticus 17:15-16.

In the same author,

He shall not eat a carcass ¹ or that which has been torn, to defile himself with it; I am Jehovah. Leviticus 22:8.

'That which has been torn' stands for evil that is a product of falsity, which is caused by the evil who are meant by the wild animals in the wood which tear to pieces, for in the Word those in hell are compared to wild animals. In the same author,

You shall be men who are sanctified to Me; therefore you shall not eat flesh torn in the field, you shall throw it to the dogs. Exodus 22:31.

In Ezekiel,

The prophet said to Jehovah, My soul has not been polluted, and from my childhood even till now I have not eaten any carcass ¹ or that which has been torn nor has abominable flesh come into my mouth. Ezekiel 4:14.

In the same prophet,

The priests shall not eat any carcass ¹ or anything that has been torn, whether bird or beast. Ezekiel 44:31.

This refers to the Lord's kingdom - that it is where the new earth is situated.

[3] All these places show what is meant in the internal sense by 'that which has been torn'; yet to make this plainer still, take as an example someone who leads a good life, that is, who does good to another because he wishes him well. Suppose that this someone then allows himself to be persuaded by another who is under the influence of evil that a good life contributes nothing to salvation for the reason that everyone is born in sins and nobody is able of himself to will good or consequently do it. And suppose he therefore allows himself to be persuaded by the idea that a means of salvation is supplied which is called faith, and accordingly that a person can be saved without leading a good life, even though his reception of faith were to take place at his final hour. If such a person who has been leading a good life allows himself to be persuaded by such an idea and then ceases to care about that life and also shows contempt for it, he is called 'one who has been torn'. For 'torn' is used in reference to good into which falsity is introduced, with the result that good ceases to be living any longer.

[4] Take as another example marriage, which a person thinks of as a heavenly institution. Then he - and perhaps his partner also - allows himself to be persuaded that marriage is instituted purely for the sake of order in the world, for the sake of the upbringing and proper care of children, and for the sake of inheritances. In addition he allows himself to be persuaded that the bond of marriage is nothing more than a kind of contract which can be terminated or modified by either partner if the other is in agreement. Once he has accepted these ideas he does not see anything heavenly about marriage. If this leads on to debauchery, then that which is called 'torn' is the result. So with every other example that could be taken.

[5] The fact that the evil are the ones who 'tear to pieces' - which they do by means of reasonings drawing on things of an external nature, into which things of an internal kind cannot be imported because of an evil life - may be seen from the following in Jeremiah,

A lion from the forest has struck the great men down, a wolf of the deserts has devastated them, a leopard is watching over their cities, every one going out of them is torn to pieces, because their transgressions have been multiplied, their turnings away have become firm. Jeremiah 5:5-6.

And in Amos,

Edom pursued his brother with the sword, and extinguished his own feelings of compassion, and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever. Amos 1:11-12.

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