True Christian Religion # 467
467. In the Word the Garden of Eden does not mean a garden, but intelligence, and a tree does not mean a tree, but man. The Garden of Eden can be shown to mean intelligence and wisdom from the following passages:
In your intelligence and wisdom you made riches for yourself. 1 Ezekiel 28:4.
and in the continuation of this chapter:
Full of wisdom, you were in Eden, God's garden; every kind of precious stone was your covering, Ezekiel 28:12-13.
This is said of the prince and king of Tyre, to whom wisdom is attributed, because Tyre in the Word means the church in respect of knowledge of truth and good, which is the means to wisdom. The precious stones which are to be his covering also mean things known about truth and good; for the prince and king of Tyre were not in the Garden of Eden.
[2] In another passage in Ezekiel:
Asshur is a cedar in Lebanon. The cedars have not hidden it in the garden of God. All the trees in the garden of God were not its equal in beauty; all the trees of Eden in the garden of God envied it, Ezekiel 31:3, 8-9.
And further on:
To whom you thus became like in glory and size among the trees of Eden, Ezekiel 31:18.
This is said of Asshur, because in the Word Asshur means rationality and intelligence arising from this.
[3] In Isaiah:
Jehovah will comfort Zion, and turn its desert into an Eden and its wilderness into a garden of Jehovah, Isaiah 51:3.
Zion there is the church, Eden and the garden of Jehovah are wisdom and intelligence. In Revelation:
To him who overcomes I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise 2 of God, Revelation 2:7.
In the midst of the street, on either side of the river was the tree of life, Revelation 22:2.
[4] These passages show plainly that the garden in Eden, in which we are told Adam was placed, means intelligence and wisdom, because similar things are said of Tyre, Asshur and Zion. A garden also means intelligence in other passages of the Word, such as Isaiah 58:11; 61:11; Jeremiah 31:12; Amos 9:14; Numbers 24:6. This spiritual way of understanding a garden is due to the representations seen in the spiritual world. There parks are to be seen, wherever angels possess intelligence and wisdom; it is the intelligence and wisdom themselves, which they get from the Lord, which produce such appearances around them. This is due to the correspondence, because everything which comes into being in the spiritual world is an example of correspondence.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. The Latin text repeats here the phrase 'you were in Eden, God's garden' from the next quotation.
2. The Greek word paradeisos, used here in its Latin form, means properly an enclosed garden or park; the meaning 'paradise' arose only later.
Ezekiel 30
1
The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,
2
Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Wail, Alas for the day!
3
For the day is near, even the day of Yahweh is near; it shall be a day of clouds, a time of the nations.
4
A sword shall come on Egypt, and anguish shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt; and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.
5
Ethiopia, and Put, and Lud, and all the mixed people, and Cub, and the children of the land that is allied with them, shall fall with them by the sword.
6
Thus says Yahweh: They also who uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Seveneh shall they fall in it by the sword, says the Lord Yahweh.
7
They shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted.
8
They shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her helpers are destroyed.
9
In that day shall messengers go forth from before me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid; and there shall be anguish on them, as in the day of Egypt; for, behold, it comes.
10
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
11
He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought in to destroy the land; and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain.
12
I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men; and I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
13
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Memphis; and there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.
14
I will make Pathros desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments on No.
15
I will pour my wrath on Sin, the stronghold of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No.
16
I will set a fire in Egypt: Sin shall be in great anguish, and No shall be broken up; and Memphis [shall have] adversaries in the daytime.
17
The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword; and these [cities] shall go into captivity.
18
At Tehaphnehes also the day shall withdraw itself, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her power shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.
19
Thus will I execute judgments on Egypt; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
20
It happened in the eleventh year, in the first [month], in the seventh [day] of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
21
Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and behold, it has not been bound up, to apply [healing] medicines, to put a bandage to bind it, that it be strong to hold the sword.
22
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong [arm], and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand.
23
I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.
24
I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man.
25
I will hold up the arms of the king of Babylon; and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out on the land of Egypt.
26
I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
