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Matthew 4

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1 Then Jesus was sent by the Spirit into the waste land to be tested by the Evil One.

2 And after going without food for forty days and forty nights, he was in need of it.

3 And the Evil One came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, give the word for these stones to become bread.

4 But he made answer and said, It is in the Writings, Bread is not man's only need, but every word which comes out of the mouth of God.

5 Then the Evil One took him to the holy town; and he put him on the highest point of the Temple and said to him,

6 If you are the Son of God, let yourself go down; for it is in the Writings, He will give his angels care over you; and, In their hands they will keep you up, so that your foot may not be crushed against a stone.

7 Jesus said to him, Again it is in the Writings, You may not put the Lord your God to the test.

8 Again, the Evil One took him up to a very high mountain, and let him see all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them;

9 And he said to him, All these things will I give you, if you will go down on your face and give me worship.

10 Then said Jesus to him, Away, Satan: for it is in the Writings, Give worship to the Lord your God and be his servant only.

11 Then the Evil One went away from him, and angels came and took care of him.

12 Now when it came to his ears that John had been put in prison, he went away to Galilee;

13 And going away from Nazareth, he came and made his living-place in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the country of Zebulun and Naphtali:

14 So that the word of the prophet Isaiah might come true,

15 The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,

16 The people who were in the dark saw a great light, and to those in the land of the shade of death did the dawn come up.

17 From that time Jesus went about preaching and saying, Let your hearts be turned from sin, for the kingdom of heaven is near.

18 And when he was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, whose other name was Peter, and Andrew, his brother, who were putting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.

19 And he said to them, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.

20 And straight away they let go the nets and went after him.

21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with their father, stitching up their nets; and he said, Come.

22 And they went straight from the boat and their father and came after him.

23 And Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the good news of the kingdom, and making well those who were ill with any disease among the people.

24 And news of him went out through all Syria; and they took to him all who were ill with different diseases and pains, those having evil spirits and those who were off their heads, and those who had no power of moving. And he made them well.

25 And there went after him great numbers from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judaea and from the other side of Jordan.

   

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Arcana Coelestia # 1839

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1839. That 'behold, a dread of great darkness was coming over him' means that it was a dreadful darkness, 'darkness' being falsities, is clear from the meaning of 'darkness' as falsities, to be dealt with immediately below. The state of the Church just before the close, or when the sun was going down, is described by 'the dread of great darkness', but the state when the sun had gone down is described by 'the thick darkness' and other details given in verse 17 below.

[2] The Lord spoke of it in the same way in Matthew,

The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Matthew 24:29.

He did not mean that the sun of the world will be darkened but the celestial entity of love and charity. Nor will the moon be darkened but the spiritual entity of faith. Nor will the stars fall from heaven but the cognitions of good and truth with the member of the Church, which are 'the powers of the heavens'. Nor will these things take place in heaven but on earth, for heaven is never plunged into darkness.

[3] 'A dread of great darkness fell on him' means His horror at such great devastation. In the measure that the heavenly or celestial things of love find acceptance in anyone, so great is his horror when he perceives the close. This applied to the Lord more than anybody else, since His love was heavenly and Divine love itself.

[4] 'Darkness' means falsities, as is clear from very many places in the

Word, as in Isaiah,

Woe to those who put darkness for light, and light for darkness! Isaiah 5:20.

'Darkness' stands for falsities and 'light' for truths. In the same prophet, He will look to the land, and behold, darkness, distress; and the light has been darkened. Isaiah 5:30.

'Darkness' stands for falsities, 'darkened light' for the fact that truth does not appear.

[5] In the same prophet,

Behold, darkness is covering the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. Isaiah 60:2.

In Amos,

The day of Jehovah is that of darkness and not light. Is not the day of Jehovah darkness and not light, thick darkness and no brightness in it? Amos 5:18, 20.

In Zephaniah,

The great day of Jehovah is near. A day of wrath is that day, a day of anguish and repression, a day of vastation and desolation, a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of cloud and shadow. Zephaniah 1:14-15.

Here 'the day of Jehovah' stands for the final period and state of the Church, while 'darkness and thick darkness' stands for falsities and evils.

[6] The Lord too calls falsities 'darkness', in Matthew,

If your eye has been evil, the whole body has been made full of darkness. If therefore the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matthew 6:23.

'Darkness' is used to mean falsities that have overtaken people who possess cognitions, a greater darkness than that found in those called gentiles, who have no cognitions.

[7] Similarly in the same gospel,

The sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness. Matthew 8:12; 22:13.

'Outer darkness' stands for the quite dreadful falsities of those inside the Church, for those people shut out the light and oppose truths with falsities, something gentiles are not able to do. In John,

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men; but the light appears in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:4-5.

'The darkness' stands for falsities inside the Church.

[8] Falsities outside the Church too are called 'darkness' but these are capable of receiving light. Of them it is said in Matthew,

The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light; and for those sitting in the region and shadow of death, the light has arisen. Matthew 4:16.

'Darkness' stands for falsities that go with not knowing, such as exist with gentiles.

[9] In John,

This is the judgement, that light has come into the world, but men have preferred darkness rather than light, for their deeds were evil. John 3:19.

'Light' stands for truths, and 'darkness' for falsities. 'The light' also stands for the Lord since He is the source of all truth, while 'darkness' stands for the hells since they are the source of all falsity.

[10] In the same gospel,

Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in darkness. John 8:12.

In the same gospel,

Walk, as long as you have the light, lest darkness overtakes you, for he who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. I have come as light into the world in order that all who believe in Me may not remain in darkness. John 12:35, 46.

'Light' stands for the Lord, the source of all good and truth, 'darkness' for falsities, which are dispersed by the Lord alone.

[11] The falsities that prevail in the last times and which are called 'the darkness' here, that is, to which 'the dread of great darkness' has reference, were represented and meant by the darkness that came over the whole earth from the sixth to the ninth hour, and also by the sun's being darkened at that time, by which was represented and meant that no love, that is, no faith, existed any more, Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44-45.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.