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Exodus 27

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1 And thou shalt make the altar of acacia-wood, five cubits the length, and five cubits the breadth; the altar shall be square; and the height thereof three cubits.

2 And thou shalt make its horns at the four corners thereof; its horns shall be of itself; and thou shalt overlay it with copper.

3 And thou shalt make its pots to cleanse it of the fat, its shovels, and its bowls, and its forks, and its firepans; for all the utensils thereof thou shalt employ copper.

4 And thou shalt make for it a grating of network of copper; and on the net shalt thou make four copper rings at its four corners;

5 and thou shalt put it under the ledge of the altar beneath, and the net shall be to the very middle of the altar.

6 And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of acacia-wood, and overlay them with copper.

7 And its staves shall be put into the rings, that the staves may be on both sides of the altar, when it is carried.

8 Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it hath been shewn thee on the mountain, so shall they make [it].

9 And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle. On the south side, southward, hangings for the court of twined byssus; a hundred cubits the length for the one side,

10 and the twenty pillars thereof, and their twenty bases of copper, the hooks of the pillars and their connecting-rods of silver.

11 And likewise on the north side in length, hangings a hundred [cubits] long, and its twenty pillars, and their twenty bases of copper; the hooks of the pillars and their connecting-rods of silver.

12 -- And the breadth of the court on the west side, hangings of fifty cubits; their pillars ten, and their bases ten.

13 -- And the breadth of the court on the east side, eastward, fifty cubits;

14 the hangings on the one wing, of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their bases three.

15 And on the other wing hangings of fifteen [cubits]; their pillars three, and their bases three.

16 -- And for the gate of the court a curtain of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and twined byssus, embroidered with needlework; their pillars four, and their bases four.

17 All the pillars of the court round about shall be fastened together with [rods of] silver; their hooks of silver, and their bases of copper.

18 The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty everywhere, and the height five cubits of twined byssus; and their bases of copper.

19 All the utensils of the tabernacle for the service thereof and all the pegs thereof, and all the pegs of the court shall be of copper.

20 And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee olive oil, pure, beaten, for the light, to light the lamp continually.

21 In the tent of meeting outside the veil, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall dress them from evening to morning before Jehovah: [it is] an everlasting statute, for their generations, on the part of the children of Israel.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 493

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493. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. (11:4) This symbolizes love and intelligence, or charity and faith, both of which people have in them from the Lord.

An olive tree symbolizes love and charity, as explained below. And a lampstand symbolizes enlightenment in truths (no. 43), thus intelligence and faith, inasmuch as intelligence comes from an enlightenment in truths, and faith in turn from this. To stand before God means, symbolically, to hear and do what He has commanded (no. 366). Here, therefore, it means that these two characteristics in them come from the Lord who is God of the earth, that is, in people who possess the two essential elements of the New Church, as described above. It is apparent from this that the statement that the two witnesses were the two olive trees and two lampstands means, symbolically, that they were love and intelligence, or charity and faith. For these two form the church - love and charity forming its life, and intelligence and faith its doctrine.

[2] An olive tree symbolizes love and charity because the olive tree symbolizes the celestial church, and thus an olive, being its fruit, symbolizes celestial love, which is love toward the Lord. Because of this, that love is symbolized also by olive oil, with which all the holy accouterments of the church were anointed. The oil called holy oil 1 was extracted from olives and mixed with spices (Exodus 30:23-24). Olive oil was also used to light the lamps of the lampstand in the Tabernacle every evening (Exodus 27:20, Leviticus 24:2).

The olive tree and olives have similar symbolic meanings in Zechariah:

Two olive trees were by (the lampstand), one at the right of the bowl, the other at its left..., (and) two olive berries... These are the two offspring of the olive tree, which stand before the Lord of the whole earth. (Zechariah 4:3, 11-12, 14)

In the book of Psalms:

I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. (Psalms 52:8)

And in Jeremiah:

Jehovah called your name, Green Olive Tree, lovely, of beautiful fruit. (Jeremiah 11:16-17)

And so on elsewhere.

[3] Since Jerusalem symbolized the church, therefore many things in it and about it also symbolized such things as are connected with the church. Near it, too, was the Mount of Olives, and it symbolized Divine love, which is why Jesus "was during the days in the temple teaching, and at night He went out and spent the night on the Mount of Olives?" (Luke 21:37, cf. 22:39, John 8:1). It is also why Jesus spoke with His disciples on that mountain regarding the end of the age and His coming then (Matthew 24:3ff., Mark 13:3ff.). It was also from that mountain that He went to Jerusalem and suffered the cross (Matthew 21:1; 26:30, Mark 11:1; 14:26, Luke 19:29, 37). Moreover, this accorded with the prediction in Zechariah:

In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. (Zechariah 14:4)

Because the olive tree symbolized the celestial component of the church, therefore the cherubim inside the Temple at Jerusalem were made of olive wood, and so, too, were the doors to the inner sanctuary, and the doorposts (1 Kings 6:23-33).

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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.