4551. And the earrings which were in their ears. That this signifies things actual, is evident from the signification of “earrings,” as being badges representative of obedience, for the reason that the “ears” signify obedience (n. 2542, 3869); and the things of obedience are things actual, for to obey involves doing in act. Things actual are here predicated of the falsities that were to be rejected. A few words shall be said regarding the rejection of falsities, even those which are actual, which is here treated of in the internal sense. Before a man by regeneration from the Lord comes to good, and does truth from good, he has very many falsities mixed with truths; for he is introduced by means of truths of faith respecting which in his first age he had no other ideas than those of infancy and childhood; which ideas, as they arise from the external things of the world and the sensuous things of the body, cannot but be classed among fallacies, and consequently among falsities. These also become actual, for what a man believes, he does. It is these falsities which are here meant. They remain with a man until he is regenerate, that is, until he acts from good, and then the good - that is, the Lord through the good-reduces into order the truths so far learned, and when this is done, falsities are separated from the truths and are removed.

[2] Of all this the man is quite ignorant, and yet there is such a removal and rejection of falsities from his earliest childhood even to his last age, and this with every man, but especially with him who is being regenerated. The like takes place even with a man who is not being regenerated, for when he becomes an adult, and his judgment has attained its maturity, he then regards the judgments of his childhood as vain and absurd, and thus as removed far away from him. But the difference between the regenerate man and the unregenerate is that the regenerate regards those things as removed from him which do not agree with the good of faith and charity, but the unregenerate those which do not agree with the delight of the love in which he is. The latter therefore for the most part regards truths as falsities and falsities as truths. As regards earrings, they were of two kinds, those which were fastened above the nose to the forehead, and those which were fastened to the ears. Those which were fastened above the nose to the forehead were badges representative of good, and are called “nose jewels” (see n. 3103); while those which were fastened to the ears were badges representative of obedience, and are “earrings.” But in the original language both are expressed by the same word.

2701. God opened her eyes. That this signifies intelligence, is evident from the signification of “opening” and of “God opening,” and also of “eyes” as being to give intelligence (that “eyes” signify the understanding may be seen above, n. 212, in like manner as “sight” or “seeing,” n. 2150, 2325). It is said that “God opens the eyes” when He opens the interior sight or understanding; which is effected by an influx into man’s rational, or rather into the spiritual of his rational. This is done by the way of the soul, or the internal way, unknown to the man. This influx is his state of enlightenment, in which the truths which he hears or reads are confirmed to him by a kind of perception interiorly within his intellectual. This the man believes to be innate in him, and to proceed from his own intellectual faculty; but in this he is very much mistaken; for it is an influx through heaven from the Lord into what is obscure, fallacious, and seeming with the man, which by means of the good therein causes the things which he believes to be similar to truth. But they only who are spiritual are blessed with enlightenment in the spiritual things of faith. It is this which is signified by “God opening the eyes.”

[2] That the “eye” signifies the understanding is because the sight of the body corresponds to the sight of its spirit, which is the understanding; and because it corresponds, in the Word the understanding is signified by the “eye” in almost every place where it is mentioned, even where it is believed to be otherwise; as where the Lord says in Matthew:

The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness; if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness (Matthew 6:22-23; Luke 11:34).

Here the “eye” is the understanding, the spiritual of which is faith, as also is evident from the explication: “if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.”

So too in the same:

If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee (Matthew 5:29; 18:9).

The “left eye” is the intellectual, but the “right eye” is its affection: that the right eye is to be plucked out means that the affection is to be subdued if it causes stumbling.

[3] In the same:

Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear (Matthew 13:16);

and in Luke:

Jesus said to the disciples, Blessed are the eyes which see the thing which ye see (Luke 10:23).

Here by the “eyes which see,” intelligence and faith are signified; for their seeing the Lord, and also His miracles and works, did not make them blessed; but comprehending them with the understanding and having faith, which is “seeing with the eyes;” and obeying, which is “hearing with the ears.” That to “see with the eyes” is to understand, and also to have faith, may be seen above (n. 897, 2325) for the understanding is the spiritual of the sight, and faith is the spiritual of the understanding. The sight of the eye is from the light of the world, but the sight of faith is from the light of heaven. Hence it is common to speak of seeing with the understanding, and of seeing by faith. (That to “hear with the ear” is to obey, may be seen above, n. 2542)

[4] Also in Mark:

Jesus said to the disciples, Do ye not yet perceive, neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes see ye not? And having ears hear ye not? (Mark 8:17-18); where it is manifest that not to be willing to understand and not to believe, is to “have eyes and not see.”

In Luke:

Jesus said of the city, If thou hadst known the things that belong unto thy peace; but now it is hid from thine eyes (Luke 19:41-42).

And in Mark:

This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes (Mark 12:11); where to be “hid from the eyes,” and to be “marvelous in the eyes,” means to be so to the understanding, as is known to everyone from the signification of the eye even in the common use of language.