63. Verse 13. And in the midst of the seven lampstands one like unto the Son of man, signifies the Lord, from whom is the All of heaven and of the church. This is evident from the signification of "in the midst," as being in the inmost (See Arcana Coelestia., n. 1074, 2940, 2973); and as all things proceed from the inmost, as light proceeds from the center to the circumferences, so "in the midst" signifies from whom; also from the signification of "the seven lampstands," as being the new heaven and the new church (of which just above, n. 62; and from the signification of "the Son of man," as being the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, and also in respect to Divine truth, because Divine truth proceeds from His Divine Human. From this it can be seen why the Lord appeared "in the midst of seven lampstands," namely, because from Him the All of heaven and the church proceeds; for it is the good of love and of faith that makes heaven and the church, and that this good is from the Divine is known in the Christian world, and as it is from the Divine, it is from the Lord, for the Lord is the God of heaven, and the Divine of the Lord makes heaven (See the work on Heaven and Hell (Heaven and Hell 2-6, 7-12 that this is His Divine Human, 78-86).

[2] That the Son of man is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, and also in respect to Divine truth, because Divine truth proceeds from His Divine Human, is evident from those passages in the Word where the Son of man is mentioned. Thus in John:

The multitude said to Jesus, How sayest Thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man? Jesus answered thee, Yet a little while is the light with you; walk while ye have the light, lest darkness overtake you. While ye have the light believe in the light, that ye may be sons of light (John 12:34-36).

From these words it is clear that "the Son of man" and "Light" have a like signification; for when the people asked, Who is the Son of man? the Lord answered that He was the Light in which they should believe. (That "light" is the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 126-140; and in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 49; thus also the Son of man. )

[3] In Luke:

Blessed are ye when men shall hate you for the Son of man's sake (Luke 6:22).

"For the Son of man's sake" is for the sake of Divine truth that proceeds from the Lord. Divine truth is the All of faith in and of love to the Lord. Because the evil deny these things, and those who deny also hate them, while the good acknowledge them, therefore it is said that the good are blessed.

[4] In the same:

The days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, but ye shall not see it. Then they shall say to you, Lo here, or Lo there. Go not away, nor pursue after (Luke 17:22-23).

"To desire [to see] one of the days of the Son of man," is to desire Divine truth, which is genuine truth, as to something thereof; the end of the church is here meant, when there will no longer be any faith, because there will be no charity, at which time all Divine truth will perish; and because Divine truth is signified by "the Son of man," it is said, "Then shall they say, Lo here, or Lo there; pursue not after."

[5] In the same:

When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith upon the earth? (Luke 18:8);

which means that when Divine truth shall be revealed out of heaven it will not be believed. Here also, "the Son of man" is the Lord in respect to Divine truth; the coming of the Lord is the revelation of Divine truth at the end of the church (See Arcana Coelestia 3900, 4060).

[6] In Matthew:

As the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth lament, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and glory (Matthew 24:27, 30).

That by "the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven" is here signified the revelation of Divine truth at the end of the church, see above n. 36.

[7] In the same:

I say unto you, Henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26:64).

And in Luke:

From henceforth shall the Son of man be seated at the right hand of the power of God (Luke 22:69).

"The Son of man" is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human, and in respect to Divine truth proceeding from Him; "to sit at the right hand of power" means that He has omnipotence; its being said that they were now about to see this means that Divine truth was in its omnipotence when the Lord in the world had conquered the hells and reduced to order all things there and in the heavens, and that thus those who received Him in faith and love could be saved (See Arcana Coelestia 9715. That to "sit at the right hand" means omnipotence, see Arcana Coelestia 3387, 4592, 4933, 7518, 8281, 9193; that all the power of good is by means of truth, n. 6344, 6423, 8304, 9327, 9410, 9639, 9643. That Divine power itself is by means of Divine truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human, see n. 6948; that the "clouds" in which the Son of man is to come are the Word in the letter, which is Divine truth in the ultimate of order, see the preface to chapter 18 of Genesis, n. 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343, 6752, 8443, 8781; and that "glory" is Divine truth itself, such as it is in the internal sense of the Word, see n. 4809, 5922, 8267, 9429).

[8] From this it can now be seen what is signified by these words in Revelation:

I saw, and behold, a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown (Revelation 14:14).

And in Daniel:

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the heavens one like unto the Son of man (Daniel 7:13).

Because all judgment is executed according to truth, therefore it is said, that it was given to the Lord:

To execute judgment, because He is the Son of man (John 5:27); and that:

The Son of man shall render unto every man according to his deeds (Matthew 16:27);

and that:

When the Son of man shall come, He shall sit on the throne of His glory, and shall judge (Matthew 25:31).

[9] In Matthew:

He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man, the field is the world, the seed are the sons of the kingdom, the tares are the sons of the evil one (Matthew 13:37-38).

"Good seed" is Divine truth; it is therefore said that the Son of man soweth it; "the sons of the kingdom" are Divine truths in heaven and the church; for "son" is truth (See Arcana Coelestia 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623), and, in the contrary sense, falsity, which also is "the son of the evil one."

[10] In the same:

The Son of man hath not where to lay His head (Matthew 8:20);

by which is meant that Divine truth had no place anywhere, that is, with any man at that time. That the Son of man was about to suffer and be put to death (Matthew 17:12, 22-23; 26:2, 24, 45; Mark 8:31; 9:12, 31) signifies that thus they were about to treat Divine truth, consequently the Lord, who was Divine truth itself. This He also teaches in Luke:

But first must the Son of man suffer, and be rejected of this generation (Luke 17:25).

[11] In Jeremiah:

No man [vir] shall dwell there; neither shall a son of man [hominis] sojourn there (Jeremiah 49:18, 33).

And in the same:

In the cities no man [vir] shall dwell, nor shall a son of man [hominis] pass through them (Jeremiah 51:43).

He who does not know the spiritual sense of the Word believes that by "cities" here are meant cities, and that by "man," and "son of man," are meant a man and a son; and that the cities were to be so desolated that no one should be in them, but it is the state of the church in respect to the doctrine of truth that is described by these words; for "cities" are the doctrinals of the church (See Arcana Coelestia 402, 2449, 3216, 492, 4493); and "man" is its very truth conjoined with good (See n. 3134, 7716, 9007); therefore a "son of man" is truth.

[12] As Divine truth proceeding from the Lord was signified by "the Son of man," therefore the prophets by whom it was revealed were called "sons of man" (as Daniel 8:17; and Ezekiel 2:1, 3, 6, 8; 3:1, 3-4, 10, 17, 25; 4:1, 16; 8:5-6, 8, 12, 15; 12:2, 3, 9, 18, 22, 27). As most things in the Word have also a contrary sense, so "son of man" has a contrary signification, which is the falsity opposite to truth. Thus in Isaiah:

What art thou, that thou art afraid of man, that dies; and of the son of man, who shall be as grass (Isaiah 51:12).

And in David:

Put not your trust in princes, in the son of man, with whom there is no salvation (Psalms 146:3).

"Princes" are primary truths (See Arcana Coelestia 2089, 5044); so, in the contrary sense, primary falsities; and "the son of man" is falsity itself.

7836. 'By the number of the souls, [each of them] according to the mouth of his eating, you shall make your count for the member of the flock' means making the good sufficient for innocence by filling it out with truths of good in the exact quantity needed for assimilating innocence. This is clear from the meaning of 'the number of the souls' as the exact quantity of the truths of good, since 'the number' in the Word has reference to truth, and 'a soul' to spiritual good; from the meaning of 'according to the mouth of his eating' as the amount needed for assimilating it, 'eating' meaning assimilating or making one's own, see 3168, 3517, 3596, 3832; and from the meaning of 'the member of the flock' as innocence, dealt with above in 7832. Making the good sufficient for innocence by filling it out is meant by the command to take from the house of an immediate neighbour the number that would be enough for the member of the flock, 'the house' meaning good, see above in 7873. When the expression 'the truth of good' is used here truth springing from good is meant. For when those who belong to the spiritual Church are being regenerated they are brought to the good of charity by means of the truth of faith; but once they have been brought to the good of charity, the truths born from it subsequently are called the truths of good.

[2] But how to understand these matters contained in this verse no one can possibly know unless he knows how the communities in heaven exist in relation to one another; for those communities were represented by the ways in which the children of Israel lived in association with one another according to tribes, families, and households. The communities of heaven are interrelated in a similar way, as follows: Heaven as a whole is one community, which the Lord governs as a single human being. The general communities there are the same in number as the members and various organs a person has, while the specific communities are the same in number as the component parts of each organ or member. And the individual communities are just so many as the smaller parts constituting larger ones. The truth of this is evident from the correspondences of the human being and of his members and various organs with the Grand Man, that is, with heaven, which have been described from experience at the ends of quite a number of chapters. From all this one may see what heaven is like so far as its organization into separate communities is concerned.

[3] But as regards what each community individually is like, it consists of a large number of angels who accord with one another in their types of good. The types of good are varying, for each one's good is peculiar to himself; yet those varying types of good that are in accord with one another are organized by the Lord into the kind of form in which they stand together as a single body of good. Such communities were represented by the fathers' houses among the children of Israel. This is the reason why the children of Israel were divided not only into tribes but also into families and households. And it is also why, when people are mentioned by name [in the Word], the names of their fathers are mentioned in order, right back to the tribe they belong to. It says, for example, of Samuel's father in 1 Samuel 1:11 that he was from Mount Ephraim, and that his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph; and 1 Samuel 9:1 states that Saul's father was from Benjamin, and that his name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, the son of a Jeminite man. ¹ Similar details concerning very many other fathers are given. When such were mentioned it was to the end that heaven might know the particular nature of the kind of good represented by that father, as it derived in consecutive degrees from the first.

[4] In heaven furthermore, if a community is not complete as it ought to be, then new members are taken from elsewhere, from some neighbouring community, just the number that will complete the form of that good. As many are taken as are needed in each state and in the changes it undergoes; for the form of good varies as the state changes. It should nevertheless be recognized that in the third or inmost heaven - which is immediately above the heaven where those who are spiritual are, since these constitute the middle or second heaven - innocence reigns. For the Lord, who is perfect innocence, flows directly into that heaven.

[5] But in the second heaven, where those who are spiritual are, the Lord flows in with innocence indirectly, that is to say, by way of the third heaven. This inflow is the means by which the communities in the second heaven are organized or arranged into order in respect of their types of good. Therefore the inflow of innocence is what leads to changes in the states of good and to consequent variations of the patterns linking communities to one another there. From this it becomes clear how one ought to understand the contents of this verse in the internal sense, namely as follows: If someone's individual type of good is insufficient for innocence, it must be joined to the nearest good of truth, in order to make the good sufficient for the innocence by filling it out with truths of good in the exact quantity needed for assimilating innocence.

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