1045. Having in her hand a golden cup, full of abominations and the uncleanness of whoredoms, signifies having doctrine from profaned goods and truths. This is evident from the signification of a "cup," as being falsity from hell, for a "cup" has a similar signification as "wine," and "wine" signifies truth from heaven, and in the contrary sense falsity from hell (See n. 887, 960, 1022). And as a "cup" signifies truth or falsity, and the doctrine of every church is either of truth or of falsity, for all truth or falsity of the church is contained in doctrine, so a "cup" also signifies doctrine, and "a golden cup" the doctrine of falsity from evil.

[2] As in Jeremiah:

Babylon is a golden cup in the hand of Jehovah, making the whole earth drunken (Jeremiah 51:7).

It is called "a golden cup" for the same reason that the woman is said to be "arrayed in purple and scarlet, and inwrought with gold, precious stones and pearls," that is, from the appearance in externals; and yet in internals it is like a cup "full of abominations and uncleanness." For it is like what the Lord says of the externals and internals with the Scribes and Pharisees:

Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, who cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. And ye make yourselves like unto whited sepulchers, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of bones of the dead and all uncleanness (Matthew 23:25-27).

The above is evident also from the signification of "abominations," as being the profanations of good (of which presently); also from the signification of "the uncleanness of whoredom," as being the profanation of truth. For "whoredom" signifies falsification of truth (See above), therefore its "uncleanness" signifies profanation.

[3] In regard to the profanations that are signified by "abominations," they are perversions of the holy things of the church, thus conversions of its goods into evils, and of its truths into falsities. They are called "abominations" because the angels abominate them; for so far as they have been holy things of the church, derived from goods and truths from the Word, they ascend into heaven; but so far as they have been applied to evils, and thus profaned, they carry with them what is infernal, which lies hidden within; and consequently they are perceived as things dead, in which there was once a living soul; and this is why heaven abominates and detests them.

[4] That this is the meaning of "abominations" in the Word is evident from the account of the abominations of Jerusalem in Ezekiel:

As that she took of the garments of her adorning which were given to her, and made for herself high places of various colors, and committed whoredom upon them;

That of the gold and silver given to her, she made herself images of a male, and committed whoredom with them;

That the oil, incense, bread, fine flour, and honey, that were given to her, she gave for an odor of rest;

That they sacrificed their sons and daughters;

That she committed whoredom first in Egypt, and afterwards with the sons of Assyria, and finally with the Chaldeans; besides other things that are there called abominations. (Ezekiel 16:2-63).

All these things signify profanations of the Word, of the church, and of worship. So in other passages where abominations are either recounted or mentioned (as Jeremiah 7:9, 10; 16:18; 32:35; Ezekiel 5:11; 7:19, 20; 8:6-18; 11:21; 14:6; 20:7, 8; Deuteronomy 7:25, 26; 12:31; 18:9, 10; Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14; Daniel 9:27; 11:31).

4564. 'And was buried below Bethel under an oak' means cast away for ever. This is clear from the meaning of 'being buried' as being cast away, for that which is buried is cast away; and from the meaning of 'under an oak' as for ever, dealt with above in 4552. 'Below Bethel' means outside the natural, for that which is said to be beneath or below is in the internal sense outside, 2148; 'Bethel' is the Divine Natural 4089, 4539.

[2] The implication of this is that with a person who is being regenerated, neither hereditary evil nor that of his own doing is removed in such a way as to disappear or be eliminated, but is merely separated and through the rearrangement effected by the Lord is cast away to the most outlying parts, 4551, 4552. It accordingly remains with that person, and does so for ever, but he is withheld from evil by the Lord and maintained in good. When this happens it seems as though evils have been cast away and the person has been purified from them or, as it is said, made righteous. All the angels of heaven confess that in their case, insofar as anything originates in themselves it is entirely evil and consequently false, but insofar as it originates in the Lord it is good and consequently true.

[3] People who have adopted any other notion concerning this matter, and who from the teaching they received while living in the world have become convinced that they have been made righteous and are in that case without sins, and so are holy, are taken back to the state where their evils reigned - both those of their own doing and those received through heredity. They are then kept in that state until they know from personal experience that of themselves they are nothing but evil and the good which had seemed to them to be their own came from the Lord, and that therefore it was not theirs but the Lord's. This is the situation with angels, as it is with the regenerate among men.

[4] But in the Lord's case it was different. He entirely removed, cast out, and cast away from Himself all hereditary evil from His mother, for being conceived from Jehovah He had no evil by heredity from His Father, only from His Mother. This is the difference; and this is what is meant by the Lord's being made Righteousness, the Holy itself, and the Divine.