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Matthew 8

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1 And when he had come down from the mountain, great numbers of people came after him.

2 And a leper came and gave him worship, saying, Lord, if it is your pleasure, you have power to make me clean.

3 And he put his hand on him, saying, It is my pleasure; be clean. And straight away he was made clean.

4 And Jesus said to him, See that you say nothing about this to anyone; but go and let the priest see you and make the offering which was ordered by Moses, for a witness to them.

5 And when Jesus was come into Capernaum, a certain captain came to him with a request,

6 Saying, Lord, my servant is ill in bed at the house, with no power in his body, and in great pain.

7 And he said to him, I will come and make him well.

8 And the captain in answer said, Lord, I am not good enough for you to come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be made well.

9 Because I myself am a man under authority, having under me fighting men; and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it.

10 And when these words came to the ears of Jesus he was surprised, and said to those who came after him, Truly I say to you, I have not seen such great faith, no, not in Israel.

11 And I say to you that numbers will come from the east and the west, and will take their seats with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven:

12 But the sons of the kingdom will be put out into the dark, and there will be weeping and cries of pain.

13 And Jesus said to the captain, Go in peace; as your faith is, so let it be done to you. And the servant was made well in that hour.

14 And when Jesus had come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother in bed, very ill.

15 And he put his hand on hers and the disease went from her, and she got up and took care of his needs.

16 And in the evening, they took to him a number of people who had evil spirits; and he sent the spirits out of them with a word, and made well all who were ill;

17 So that the word of Isaiah the prophet might come true: He himself took our pains and our diseases.

18 Now when Jesus saw a great mass of people about him, he gave an order to go to the other side.

19 And there came a scribe and said to him, Master, I will come after you wherever you go.

20 And Jesus said to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven have a resting-place; but the Son of man has nowhere to put his head.

21 And another of the disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go and give the last honours to my father.

22 But Jesus said to him, Come after me; and let the dead take care of their dead.

23 And when he had got into a boat, his disciples went after him.

24 And there came up a great storm in the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves: but he was sleeping.

25 And they came to him, and, awaking him, said, Help, Lord; destruction is near.

26 And he said to them, Why are you full of fear, O you of little faith? Then he got up and gave orders to the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.

27 And the men were full of wonder, saying, What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea do his orders?

28 And when he had come to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, there came out to him from the place of the dead, two who had evil spirits, so violent that no man was able to go that way.

29 And they gave a loud cry, saying, What have we to do with you, you Son of God? Have you come here to give us punishment before the time?

30 Now there was, some distance away, a great herd of pigs taking their food.

31 And the evil spirits made strong prayers to him, saying, If you send us out, let us go into the herd of pigs.

32 And he said to them, Go. And they came out, and went into the pigs; and the herd went rushing down a sharp slope into the sea and came to their end in the water.

33 And their keepers went in flight to the town and gave an account of everything, and of the men who had the evil spirits.

34 And all the town came out to Jesus; and seeing him they made request that he would go away from their part of the country.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 435

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435. And their teeth were like lions' teeth. This symbolically means that matters of the senses, which constitute the lowest elements of the natural self's life, appeared to them to have power over all else.

Teeth symbolize the lowest elements of the natural self's life, which are called sensual, as discussed in no. 424 above. These sensual elements are of two kinds, one having to do with the will, the other with the intellect. Sensual elements having to do with the will are symbolized by women's hair, as said just above in no. 434; and sensual elements having to do with the intellect are symbolized by teeth. The latter, which is to say, sensual people caught up in falsities by conviction, appear to themselves to have power over everything, so that they cannot be overcome. Therefore the locusts' teeth, which symbolize such sensual elements, were like lions' teeth - a lion symbolizing power (no. 241).

That teeth symbolize the lowest elements of a person's life - those elements called sensual - and that when these are divorced from the interior levels of the mind, they are caught up in nothing but falsities and attack truths and destroy them, can be seen from the following passages:

With my soul I lie down among lions...; their teeth are a spear and arrows... (Psalms 57:4)

O God, destroy their teeth in their mouth! Turn aside the molars of the young lions... (Psalms 58:6)

...a nation has come up against My land, strong..., its teeth the teeth of a lion, and it has the molars of a fierce lion. (Joel 1:6)

...O Jehovah..., You have broken the teeth of the impious. (Psalms 3:7)

...a beast (came up from the sea), terrible, dreadful, and exceedingly strong, which had huge iron teeth; it was devouring and breaking in pieces... (Daniel 7:3, 7).

Blessed be Jehovah, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. (Psalms 124:6)

Since sensual people do not see any truth in its own light, but reason and argue about everything as to whether it is so, and since these altercations in the hells sound outside the hells like the gnashing of teeth, which regarded in itself is a colliding of falsity and truth, it is apparent what the gnashing of teeth symbolizes in Matthew 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30, and Luke 13:28; and in some measure what to gnash with the teeth symbolizes in Job 16:9, Psalms 35:15-16; 37:12; 112:10, Micah 3:5, and Lamentations 2:16.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.